The Vatican has described gay rights as
“special rights” in criticizing an historic United Nations report
documenting discriminatory laws and acts of violence against gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
According to The
Catholic Free Press, Pope Benedict XVI's permanent observer
at the United Nations in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, told the
U.N. Human Rights Council considering High Commissioner for Human
Rights Navi Pillay's report that the Roman Catholic Church fears that
the council is pressuring member states to support gay marriage.
The Vatican “condemns discrimination
and violence against any human person, including those who are so
targeted because of perceived sexual differences,” Tomasi said.
“The Holy See expressed grave concern
that, under the guise of 'protecting' people from discrimination and
violence on the basis of perceived sexual differences, this council
may be running the rise of demeaning the sacred and time-honored
legal institution of marriage between man and woman.”
The archbishop added that the Vatican
opposes efforts to “particularize or to develop special rights for
special groups of people,” because they could “easily put at risk
the universality of those rights.”
(Related: Pope
Benedict calls on U.S. bishops to oppose gay marriage.)