Dr. Due Books

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The Vatican said it condemns all forms of violence against homosexuals, but does not support a proposed United Nations declaration recognising “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as new categories that need human rights’ protections.

The statement, issued by the office of the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, was submitted Dec. 18 during the U.N. General Assembly’s discussion of a proposed Declaration on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.

The statement said the Vatican appreciates efforts in the declaration aimed at condemning all forms of violence against homosexuals and urging nations to put an end to all criminal penalties against them.

However, the declaration’s wording and its introduction of new categories for human rights’ protections go “well beyond the above-mentioned and shared intent,” it said.

The new categories of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” it said, “find no recognition or clear and agreed definition in international law.”

If these were added to the list of protected human rights’ categories, it “would create serious uncertainty in the law as well as undermine the ability of states to enter into and enforce new and existing human rights conventions and standards,” the statement said.

It said the Vatican “continues to advocate that every sign of unjust discrimination toward homosexual persons should be avoided and urges states to do away with criminal penalties against them.”

An explanatory note published Dec. 19 in the Vatican newspaper said that if the resolution on sexual orientation aimed simply at ensuring no country treated homosexuality as a crime “there would have been no reason for the permanent observer of the Holy See in New York to criticize that document.”

“The Catholic Church maintains that free sexual acts between adult persons must not be treated as crimes to be punished by civil authorities,” said the note in L’Osservatore Romano.

However, the note said, the way the resolution was written could open the way to the recognition of same-sex marriages and allow gay couples to adopt children, and could limit the right of the Catholic Church and other religious bodies to teach that while homosexual behavior is not a criminal offense it is not morally acceptable.

A U.N. spokeswoman told Catholic News Service in an e-mail Dec. 19 that 63 countries - including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom - have signed the declaration. The United States has not signed the declaration.