World News

Hundred protest as Vatican refuses to back UN bill on decriminalisation

Wednesday, 10th December 2008

Written by Francesca Cookney

Some 250 people made their way to the Vatican City this weekend to stage a sit-in protest in front of St Peter's Basilica after the Vatican conveyed its opposition to a UN resolution that would call for the worldwide decriminalisation of homosexuality.

The crowd, which included Italian politicians, stood beneath banners for the two leading gay and lesbian advocacy groups, Arcigay and Arcilesbica, wearing nooses around their necks and holding candles in a dramatic symbol of the fact that homosexuality remains punishable by death in nine countries.

The initiative was launched in May this year in an endeavour to address the human rights breaches that take place in 80 countries around the world where homosexuality is still a criminal offence. The Vatican, which is a leading campaigner against the death penalty, has agreed that "all forms of violent or discriminatory penal law regarding homosexuals" are unacceptable.

Nevertheless, it refuses to back a complete decriminalisation on the basis that it might encourage gay marriage and lead to a demonising of those who believe it to be wrong. Such a move "could clearly become a way to pressure or discriminate against those who [...] consider marriage between a man and a woman to be the basic and original form of social life," said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.

Arcigay president Aurelio Mancuso slammed the decision, describing it as "the bad choice the Vatican has made as a state, not as a church."