Thursday, March 24, 2011

Vatican envoy to UN decries attacks on Catholic beliefs regarding human sexuality


A Vatican representative to the United Nations spoke out Tuesday against “attacks” on freedom of conscience and religion directed against Catholics and others who hold traditional beliefs about sexual morality and human nature.

Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, spoke out in a March 22 meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council, calling attention to what he described as a “disturbing trend” in debates over social life and human rights.

“People are being attacked for taking positions that do not support sexual behavior between people of the same sex,” Archbishop Tomasi told the council. “When they express their moral beliefs or beliefs about human nature, which may also be expressions of religious convictions, or state opinions about scientific claims, they are stigmatized, and worse – they are vilified, and prosecuted.”

The archbishop stated that these attempts to silence Catholics, and other critics of homosexual practice, were a human rights violation according to the council's own standards.

“These attacks contradict the fundamental principles announced in three of the Council’s resolutions of this session,” he pointed out.

“The truth is, these attacks are violations of fundamental human rights, and cannot be justified under any circumstances.”

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Related article: Religious freedom does not require complete secularization, archbishop tells UN

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