This story came up some time back. FN http://www.panos.org.uk/newsfeatures/featuredetails.asp?id=1128
Vatican Hierarchy Declares Sex War Over Words By Gabriella Tavernese [spacer.gif] ROME (PANOS) The Catholic ecclesiastic hierarchy has opened a literary front in its ongoing sex war. The Lexicon, a voluminous 900-page book launched in April, has provoked decidedly mixed reviews. Written by a committee of 78 scholars and approved by the Vaticans Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the treatise seeks to clarify terms that seem innocuous such as reproductive health but could otherwise hide ideological objectives, according to the preface by Cardinal Trujllo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family. The Vatican believes that terms such as reproductive health are code words for safe abortion provision. Unsafe abortion kills roughly 70,000 women nearly half in sub-Saharan Africa every year, according to the UN World Health Organization. The Lexicon fully reaffirms what is known as the Wojtyla doctrine named after the current Pope on sexual ethics. Not by chance is he quoted 800 times in the book. When the family is discussed in the UN or in national parliaments, ambiguous terms and concepts impede a real understanding of the speakers intentions, Cardinal Trujillo warned LAvvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference. The objective of the Lexicon, according to Trujillo, is to oppose a series of trends such as the promotion of safer sex, safe abortion, the plurality of family models, assisted reproduction and personal choice in general. The concept of reproductive and sexual rights has been affirmed by governments in a series of landmark UN conferences in the past decade. In January the European parliament passed a resolution recognising the rights of gay and lesbian couples. [The Vatican] appears quite vigilant and determined in their intervention, said Franco Grillini, honorary chairman of Arcigay-Italy, a gay organisation, and a Left-Democrat member of the Italian parliament. Unfortunately Italian politicians are subservient to the Catholic Church, while those on the left dont consider these questions essential. In recent years, liberal Catholics in the United States and elsewhere have challenged Vatican pronouncements, as well its voting status at the UN. Frances Kissling, president of the international campaigning group Catholics for a Free Choice, told Panos Features: The Vatican feels increasingly threatened by the growing dissent within the Catholic Church on a range of issues including reproductive health, homosexuality and the move to democratise the Church. Tony Anatrella, a French psychoanalyst who edited the books section on homosexuality, calls it a psychological disorder and a condition without any social value. The Lexicon also makes ominous parallels between consenting homosexuals and paedophiles [adults who sexually prey on children], which has been resented by human rights and gay campaigners. The Vaticans overwhelming fear of all sexuality leads to an obsession with homosexuality and to homophobia, Kissling said. AGEDO, an Italian organisation of parents of homosexuals, has filed a defamation case against the publisher and authors of the Lexicons items on homosexuality and child rights. In spite of these concerns, Panos Features found that many parish priests and ordinary Catholics in Rome are unaware of the Lexicon. However, one former priest, Don Franco Barbero, who founded the Viottoli Community which works with Italys gay population, has discussed the book in public meetings throughout Italy. This book is the product of a deep desperation of the ecclesiastic hierarchies who see the flock leaving, and their house empty. The pluralism of cultures, feminism, individual liberties, all these are destroying the Churchs authority, said Barbero. At the ground level there is a big dissent, he added. According to Prof Giovanni F Mapelli of the Centre for Theological Studies in Milan, the Vaticans current position, as laid out in the Lexicon is nothing less than a betrayal of the ideals and work of the liberal Pope John XXIII (1958-63). The Second Vatican Council of 1962, presided over by him, marked a momentous attempt by the Church to open up to the modern world and take note of the changes taking place in society. The Lexicon attacks the AIDS prevention strategy of safer sex through condom use. Jacques Suaudeau, of the Pontifical Council for the Family, writes in the book that actual statistics demonstrate that condoms dont protect against sexually transmitted diseases (STIs). Officially, the Vatican promotes sexual abstinence before marriage and fidelity within marriage to prevent HIV infection. While condoms do not protect against all STIs the human papillomavirus, which is linked to cervical cancer, is spread through skin-to-skin contact of the genitals the US National Institute of Health found condoms do prevent transmission of HIV and gonorrhoea besides a strong probability of condom effectiveness against six other STIs. Dr Donato Greco, director of the National Centre of Epidemiology in Rome, says, Even if there is a diversity of views in the scientific world, no one speaks of condoms as having less than 70-80% efficacy against HIV, if used consistently and correctly. In Uganda, among [ante-natal] women, the transmission rate went down from 19% to 5% (due to condom use), and it was the same among young people, Greco adds. Priests in Africa are in the forefront of preventing AIDS. Their approach toward the family and sexuality is cautious and integrative, an approach which I, too, as a Catholic, share. Moral judgment cannot enter in public health issues. According to a recent survey published in La Repubblica newspaper, only 24.7% of Italian Catholics accept the Churchs moral stance, while 57.9% are for personal choice. Unfortunately, the Lexicon has generated little public debate. Aimed at politicians and international organisations rather than ordinary Catholics its purpose is to help sympathetic policy makers lobby against laws that run counter to the Catholic Churchs ethics. And, in what could be a gauge of the power of the current Papacy, at least two priests who expressed their concerns regarding the Lexicon refused to be interviewed even though they were assured anonymity./PANOS Gabriella Tavernese is a Rome-based Italian print and television journalist who has written extensively for the dailies L'Unit� and Il Manifesto and made documentaries for RAI, the Italian television channel. Useful link(s) [37]The Vatican [38]Catholics for a Free Choice This feature is published by Panos Features and can be reproduced free of charge. 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