Word: vaticaners
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...been expelled by the Popular Party after describing homosexuals as "cretins, deficient ? and deformed." But the president of the Collective of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals of Madrid, Arnaldo Gancedo, who is planning to wed his long-time partner, says the new law has "nothing to do with the Vatican. It is as if one state was interfering with the affairs of another. The Pope and his priests are entitled to their opinions, but they have no right to intervene in the lives of non-Catholics." And most Spaniards seem fairly relaxed about the prospect of same-sex marriages - even...
...first potential papal entanglement came last week when, in the first public statement of the new papacy, the Vatican condemned the Spanish parliament’s recent foray down the path towards legalizing same-sex marriage. The statement went so far as to instruct Spanish Catholic civil servants to refuse to marry homosexual couples, even at the expense of their jobs...
Certainly, it is the place of the Vatican to make its views known on important moral issues like same-sex marriage. It is not, however, the Vatican’s role to try to exercise religious influence on the affairs of secular states...
...hand, it is a religious affair, with different churches conducting marriage ceremonies in places of worship conducted by ordained clergy. On the other hand, however, it is a civic institution, with states registering marriages in secular ceremonies held in courthouses presided over by civic officials. The Vatican has always exercised spiritual sovereignty over the religious institution of marriage within the Catholic faith. With its pronouncement against Spain’s parliament, however, the Church involved itself in the ongoing political debate over the civic institution of marriage, where it has no place...
...views on the question need not be an issue for non-Catholics, however, because whether or not the Catholic Church chooses to recognize same-sex marriage is an issue for the church alone. The parallel debate on civil same-sex marriage is, however, an issue for everyone. The Vatican is clearly perturbed by Spain’s tentative steps towards legalizing same-sex marriage. While it is its right to disagree with the Spanish government, when it comes to secular issues like this one, it is the Vatican’s responsibility to keep that disagreement to itself...