Homosexual Activists Protest at the Vatican

The protest was organized by Italy's leading homosexual activist organisation who claim that the Vatican Wants to "exterminate" them.

ROME, Italy (LifeSiteNews) - A group of about a hundred homosexualist activists and media gathered outside the perimeter of St. Peter's Square in Rome on Saturday, claiming that the Catholic Church has an unspoken agenda to "kill" homosexuals. The protest was organised by Italy's leading homosexualist activist organization, Arcigay, a representative of which told LifeSiteNews.com that the group was there to protest "the pope and the Vatican."

"What they say is three things," the group's spokesman said. "That it is normal to kill a homosexual. It is normal to kill a lesbian. It is normal to kill transsexual."

The protests and comments were made in response to the assertion by the Vatican's envoy to the United Nations that the Holy See would not support a UN resolution to "decriminalize homosexuality." Archbishop Celestino Migliore, told a French news agency last week that the Vatican opposes the declaration because it would place even more pressure on countries to adopt or expand same-sex "marriage" or unions and would generally fuel the movement to normalize homosexuality.

"States which do not recognise same-sex unions as 'matrimony' will be pilloried and made an object of pressure," he said.

Socially liberal forces in Italy have responded to Migliore's comments with protests and accusations that the Vatican has a murderous "secret agenda."

At Saturday's demonstration, when asked how he came to believe that the Vatican wants to "kill homosexuals" the Arcigay spokesman said only, "The United Nations has to take a position, and to take over, to remove all the laws in the world against the homosexuals."

Archbishop Migliore, however, had reiterated the teaching of the Church that says that all unjust forms of discrimination towards persons with homosexual inclinations must be avoided, but defended the rights of countries who want to retain legal recognition of natural sexual relations. "If adopted," he said, the UN resolution "would create new and implacable discriminations."

Other protesters on Saturday told LifeSiteNews.com that the Vatican has "always" wanted to kill homosexuals. One said, "The Church wants the gays killed." When asked for evidence, within the last fifty years, that the Catholic Church or the pope wants to kill homosexuals, the spokesman said, "It's really hard to answer this question. The Church is in fact against gays. Their actions don't correspond to their words."

"I can read Italian. I can read L'Osservatore Romano, and this is not a kind of interpretation. What they say is what they say."

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The UN resolution, proposed by France and backed by 50 of the UN's 192 member states, is set to be brought to the European Union next month, where it is overwhelmingly supported.

The Vatican's spokesman responded that the accusation that the Church wants to impose the death penalty is absurd. "No one wants the death penalty or jail or fines for homosexuals," said Vatican media spokesman and director of Vatican Radio, Father Frederico Lombardi.

"It's not for nothing that fewer than 50 member states of the United Nations have adhered to the proposal in question while more than 150 have not adhered. The Holy See is not alone," he said.

While the Vatican, an independent city-state, is not a member of the European Union, it holds the status of Permanent Observer at the United Nations and is an international voice for those countries, whether Catholic or not, who are under constant pressure by the UN and other international bodies to reduce legal protections for the unborn and for the natural family.

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