Let's Party Like It's 1899 at the Vatican

That's how this story comes across to me:

From the New York Times:

Gay rights groups and newspaper editorials on Tuesday condemned the Vatican for its decision to oppose a proposed U.N. resolution calling on governments worldwide to de-criminalize homosexuality.

The row erupted after the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations told a French Catholic news agency the Holy See would oppose the resolution, which France is due to propose later this month on behalf of the 27-member European Union.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore said the Vatican opposed the resolution because it would "add new categories of those protected from discrimination" and could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage.

"If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations," Migliore said. "For example, states which do not recognize same-sex unions as 'matrimony' will be pilloried and made an object of pressure," Migliore said.

A strongly worded editorial in Italy's mainstream La Stampa newspaper said the Vatican's reasoning was "grotesque."

Pointing out that homosexuality was still punishable by death in some Islamic countries, the editorial said what the Vatican really feared was a "chain reaction in favor of legally recognized homosexual unions in countries, like Italy, where there is currently no legislation."

The Religious Right commonly uses fear tactics like speculating about future (and often extreme) consequences of granting legal rights to GLBT people. It's a long, long way from not throwing someone in jail for being homosexual to allowing same-sex marriages, but the Catholic Church wants people to take that, dare I say, leap of faith.

Once one gets past the irony of a religion that has ordained so many closeted gay priests taking such an aggressive step of discrimination, it becomes clear that this will only result in the Catholic Church moving further toward irrelivancy.

This would be a shame because they do a lot of things to help people--as long as they are straight.

Click here to read the rest of the New York Times story.