In an article from the Associated Press the Pope is supposed to have said that gay marriage is a threat to peace. This was from a speech he made on Friday 14th December 2012 on the 46th World Peace Day. On Sunday 16th December (Guadette Sunday) some protesters entered St Peters Square with signs in several languages: Two of the signs noted by the Associated press article were: "Marriage for All" and "Homophobia (equals) death.
"
Now what is that?
HOMOPHOBIA EQUALS DEATH. Is that a threat? I don't know, but I am quite concerned.
But I am also concerned about the press getting the story right. What did the Pope say about Gay Marriage? I can see that there would be people who would disagree with the Pope's opinion, but I would not call his speech "hate Speech". I would however call that sign about homophobia equals death as "Hate Speech" and a threat. Maybe the Pope was right - Fundamentalism of the non religious type is also a threat to peace. But what did he actually say? Well His speech was broken into several parts:
- Preamble
- Gospel beatitude
- Peace: God’s gift and the fruit of human effort
- Peacemakers are those who love, defend and promote life in its fullness
- Building the good of peace through a new model of development and economics
- Education for a culture of peace: the role of the family and institutions
- A pedagogy for peacemakers
The part that mentions gay marriage is #4 -
PEACEMAKERS ARE THOSE WHO LOVE, DEFEND AND PROMOTE LIFE IN ITS FULLNESS - Here it is below.
"4. The path to the attainment of the common good and to peace is
above all that of respect for human life in all its many aspects,
beginning with its conception, through its development and up to its
natural end. True peacemakers, then, are those who love, defend and
promote human life in all its dimensions, personal, communitarian and
transcendent. Life in its fullness is the height of peace. Anyone who
loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against life.
"Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence,
support among other things the liberalization of abortion, perhaps do
not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false
peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and
even more so the killing of a defenceless and innocent being, will
never be able to produce happiness or peace. Indeed how could one claim
to bring about peace, the integral development of peoples or even the
protection of the environment without defending the life of those who
are weakest, beginning with the unborn. Every offence against life,
especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to
development, peace and the environment. Neither is it just to introduce
surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the
basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the
clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right
to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to
life.
"There is also a need to acknowledge and promote the natural
structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of
attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types
of union; such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage,
obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society.
"These principles are not truths of faith, nor are they simply a
corollary of the right to religious freedom. They are inscribed in human
nature itself, accessible to reason and thus common to all humanity.
The Church’s efforts to promote them are not therefore confessional in
character, but addressed to all people, whatever their religious
affiliation. Efforts of this kind are all the more necessary the more
these principles are denied or misunderstood, since this constitutes an
offence against the truth of the human person, with serious harm to
justice and peace.
"
Consequently, another important way of helping to build peace is for
legal systems and the administration of justice to recognize the right
to invoke the principle of conscientious objection in the face of laws
or government measures that offend against human dignity, such as
abortion and euthanasia.
"One of the fundamental human rights, also with reference to
international peace, is the right of individuals and communities to
religious freedom. At this stage in history, it is becoming increasingly
important to promote this right not only from the negative point of
view, as freedom from – for example, obligations or limitations
involving the freedom to choose one’s religion – but also from the
positive point of view, in its various expressions, as freedom for – for
example, bearing witness to one’s religion, making its teachings known,
engaging in activities in the educational, benevolent and charitable
fields which permit the practice of religious precepts, and existing and
acting as social bodies structured in accordance with the proper
doctrinal principles and institutional ends of each. Sadly, even in
countries of long-standing Christian tradition, instances of religious
intolerance are becoming more numerous, especially in relation to
Christianity and those who simply wear identifying signs of their
religion.
"Peacemakers must also bear in mind that, in growing sectors of
public opinion, the ideologies of radical liberalism and technocracy are
spreading the conviction that economic growth should be pursued even to
the detriment of the state’s social responsibilities and civil
society’s networks of solidarity, together with social rights and
duties. It should be remembered that these rights and duties are
fundamental for the full realisation of other rights and duties,
starting with those which are civil and political.
"One of the social rights and duties most under threat today is the
right to work. The reason for this is that labour and the rightful
recognition of workers’ juridical status are increasingly undervalued,
since economic development is thought to depend principally on
completely free markets. Labour is thus regarded as a variable dependent
on economic and financial mechanisms. In this regard, I would reaffirm
that human dignity and economic, social and political factors, demand
that we continue 'to prioritise the goal of access to steady employment
for everyone'. If this ambitious goal is to be realised, one prior
condition is a fresh outlook on work, based on ethical principles and
spiritual values that reinforce the notion of work as a fundamental good
for the individual, for the family and for society. Corresponding to
this good are a duty and a right that demand courageous new policies of
universal employment.
Building the good of peace through a new model of development and economics
