Pope Benedict XVI on Friday weighed in on a heated debate over gay
marriage, saying same-sex unions called into question what it means to
be “true men”.
“In the fight for the family, the very notion of
being – of what being human really means – is being called into
question,” Benedict said in Italian during an end-of-year speech.
While
he did not specifically refer to gay marriage, it was a clear bid by
the pontiff to block the spread of the legalisation of gay marriage
which is gaining ground in the West. France, Britain and the United
States are expected soon to join a dozen countries where homosexual
couples can legally wed.
“The question of the family is the
question of what it means to be a man, and what it is necessary to do to
be true men,” Benedict said.
The pope spoke of the “falseness” of
gender theories and cited at length France’s chief Rabbi Gilles
Bernheim, who has spoken out against gay marriage.
“Bernheim has
shown in a very detailed and profoundly moving study that the attack we
are currently experiencing on the true structure of the family, made up
of father, mother, and child, goes much deeper,” he said.
He cited
feminist gender theorist Simone de Beauvoir’s view to the effect that
one is not born a woman, but one becomes so – that sex was no longer an
element of nature but a social role people chose for themselves.
“The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious,” he said.
The
defence of the family, Benedict said, “is about man himself. And it
becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears.”
In
an article for Britain’s Financial Times newspaper on Thursday, the
pontiff reminded the country’s increasingly secular population the
Church was not just concerned with morals, but also social issues.
“It
is in the Gospel that Christians find inspiration for their daily lives
and their involvement in worldly affairs – be it in the Houses of
Parliament or the Stock Exchange,” the pope said in the article.
He also stressed the need for the Church to dialogue with atheists and agnostics who agree with the church’s social codes.
He
spoke of the possibility of forming an “alliance” based on a common
respect for the “law of nature,” in reference to the traditional
marriage between a man and a woman.
On Monday, the Vatican’s
newspaper described laws on gay marriage as an attempt at a
communist-like “utopia”, a day after tens of thousands of demonstrators
turned out in France to support legalising both marriages and adoption
for gay couples.
France’s parliament is to debate the government-backed “marriage for all” bill early next year.
With
President Francois Hollande’s Socialists enjoying a strong majority,
the bill is expected to pass despite vehement opposition from the right
and religious groups.
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