The Pope’s ambassador to one of Europe’s leading Catholic countries has hinted that the church should ”acknowledge” gay partnerships — a significant crack in the Vatican’s resolute opposition to ”evil and deviant” gay relationships.
Monsignor Manuel Monteiro de Castro told a conference of Spanish bishops at the weekend: ”The new political situation in which we are living in Spain sets new challenges in the spreading of the gospel and we must meet those challenges in an appropriate manner.”
Departing from his prepared speech, the papal nuncio added that although the law in Spain, and many other countries, defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, ”there are other forms of cohabitation and it is good that they be recognised”.
The uncommonly outspoken remarks, reported in the Spanish press, will cause extreme annoyance within a papal circle desperate to stop the encroachment of what it sees as decadent sexual morality.
Although he insisted that same-sex unions could not be regarded as marriages, the envoy implied that they were at least worthy of compassion.
”They are not the same as marriage,” he said. ”We will leave the term marriage for that which it has always referred to, and other arrangements should be given other names.”
The nuncio said gay couples should be given access to certain civil rights, including those within the social security system. He added: ”The church can also help them in their spiritual life.”
The remarks were in sharp contrast to last year’s Vatican guidelines which called on Catholics to campaign against the legalisation of gay relationships, calling them evil, deviant and a grave threat to society.
The document said: ”We must refrain from any formal cooperation with the promulgation or application of such seriously unjust laws and, as far as is possible, from any material cooperation in their application.”
It added: ”There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law.
”Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour … but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity.”
The debate mirrors the crisis in the worldwide Anglican communion, threatened with splits over the church’s attitude to homosexuals, particularly those who are ordained. A commission is wrestling with new structures that would enable the Anglican church to hold together despite breaches over the issue.
In November the US Episcopal church consecrated its first openly gay bishop and the Anglican church in Canada is poised next month to approve blessing services for same-sex couples. In Britain the gay cleric Canon Jeffrey John, denied promotion to a bishopric last year, has been appointed cathedral dean of St Albans.
The Catholic church is far from such considerations — though studies have suggested a high proportion of priests in training in the west for the priesthood are gay.
Although some Catholic bishops in England might be privately relatively sympathetic to the nuncio’s views, they have publicly criticised the government’s proposed civil partnerships legislation.
But there has been a growing sense within the Spanish church that it should acknowledge and accept different lifestyles. A meeting in the Gerona diocese last week also defended gay relationships.
But the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio MarÃÂa Rouco Varela, told the conference: ”Marriage, as an institution, contributes to the growth and stability of society as a structure for bringing up children. For that, we owe it the recognition and legal support of the state.
”Homosexual cohabitation, which can never fulfil that role, cannot be credited with the same social function as marriage and the family.”
He added: ”This is not about denying anyone their rights, on the contrary it’s about defending the rights of the family in a coherent fashion, and that is an issue of vital importance for the present and future of Spanish society.”
The cardinal said acceptance of homosexuality as equivalent to marriage was a ”sad truth” about the declining importance of religious values in Spanish society. – Guardian Unlimited Â