Vatican an "expert in humanity" - article

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Vatican: Feminism blurs sexes, helps gays

Mike Lavers, PlanetOut Network

Monday, August 2, 2004 / 05:20 PM

 

 

Describing itself as an "expert in humanity," the Vatican made public

on Saturday a pamphlet it sent to bishops around the world,

condemning modern feminism and its influence on making homosexuality

more culturally acceptable.

 

Titled "On the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in

the World," this 37-page document, which was written by Cardinal

Joseph Ratzinger and approved by Pope John Paul II, further added

that feminist ideology has blurred the distinctions between genders

and thus had consequences on global society.

 

"[Proponents of feminism] call into question the family in its

natural two-parent structure of mother and father and make

homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent in a new model

of polymorphous sexuality," Ratzinger, who chairs the Congregation

for the Doctrine of Faith, stated.

 

This document comes on the heels of another released last summer in

which the church described homosexuality as a "troubling moral and

social phenomenon" and reaffirmed the church's official opposition to

marriage for same-sex couples.

 

In it, the church's orthodoxy guardians stated that anything other

than traditional marriage between a man and a woman poses a threat to

society and the family.

 

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics and supporters of

marriage for same-sex couples were quick to criticize Ratzinger and

the Vatican, saying the new treatise does not reflect the opinions of

most people who are members of the church.

 

According to Matthew Gallagher, executive director of the Washington-

based DignityUSA, a group for gay Catholics, the church's positions

against marriage for same-sex couples and feminism show that they are

nervous about losing their influence over people as the world

continues to modernize.

 

"The Vatican continues to use old language to describe modern

society," he told the PlanetOut Network on Monday. "People are going

to realize how out of touch [it] is."