Just say no to the Vatican
Protests this weekend will call for an end to the Vatican's privileges and its
undermining of human rights
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* Peter Tatchell
*
o Peter Tatchell
o guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 February 2009 19.30 GMT
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The Vatican should stop meddling in politics and misusing its power to oppose
human rights. Just as importantly, it is time the Italian government ceased
kow-towing to the pope's theocratic agenda. All of Europe should be secular,
where people are free to practise their faith but where no religion has
privileged legal status and unique access to political power and influence.
These are the demands of protesters, backed by the British Humanist
Association, who will assemble in London this Saturday afternoon in support of
a simultaneous protest taking place in Rome against the Vatican's manipulation
of Italian, European and worldwide politics.
In celebration of Charles Darwin's debunking of the Biblical idea that the
world was made by God in six days, the protesters will meet at the Natural
History Museum. It is hosting the biggest-ever Charles Darwin exhibition to
commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of his
book, On the Origin of Species. His theory of evolution was long rejected and
denounced by successive popes.
Undeterred by church hostility, Darwin made his view of religion very clear:
"Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of
a deity ... it is more humble and I believe truer to consider him created from
animals."
>From the Natural History Museum, the marchers will go to the Italian Embassy
>to demand that the Italian government curb its favouritism and appeasement of
>the Vatican. The Italian parliament too often allows itself to be bullied by
>the Vatican, resulting in it dumping legislation for same-sex civil unions and
>sex education in schools.
The Catholic church in Italy is a huge corporate business empire. It owns
hotels, restaurants, shops and private schools but it does not pay tax. On the
contrary, it is subsidised by the Italian taxpayer, with about four billion
euros in public money being given to the Vatican every year.
Saturday's protest organisers, Marco Tranchino and Serena Bassi, describe the
Vatican as a "tiny statelet inhabited almost entirely by priests, with a
disproportionate and malign influence on Italian and global politics".
Officially part of the United Nations, the Vatican's observer state status
means it intervenes in UN debates on a variety of issues, including old-time
favourites, such as birth control, abortion and homosexuality. No other faith
has this privileged status, access and influence at the UN.
The Vatican maintains diplomatic relationships with nearly every nation in the
world. In most EU countries it benefits from the support of Catholic
politicians and in many cases its policies are advocated by political parties
like the Christian Democrats and their successors and allies. The Vatican does
not shrink from using threats and intimidation to enforce its will. To keep
Catholic MPs in line with papal policy opposing gay equality, for example, the
Vatican has threatened to excommunicate any Catholic legislator who votes for
same-sex civil unions.
Of the 27 countries in the European Union, 14 are bound to the Vatican by at
least one treaty. No other religion has such state-level power and connections,
either in Europe or the wider world.
The pope has made sure that the proposed EU Constitution – and now the Lisbon
Treaty (article 16c) – commits the European Union to "an open, transparent and
regular dialogue with churches and religious organisations". No other
non-governmental organisation is afforded such dialogue – not trade unions, not
human rights groups and not bodies representing the rights and welfare of
women, black or disabled people.
Within Britain, the Catholic church has lobbied hard to restrict women's
reproductive rights, in particular access to contraception, abortion and
fertility treatment. It has led the opposition to medical advance by means of
embryo and stem cell research. With increasing numbers of state-funded faith
schools (1 in 3 of all schools in the UK are either Catholic or Church of
England), the Vatican continues to exercise a strong and biased influence on
hundreds of thousands of young people.
The pope encourages us to view women as inferior to men by barring them from
the priesthood and by consistently stating that the two genders are naturally
different and that women are biologically inclined for a more mothering and
domestic role in life. In many Catholic countries, women who have had a divorce
or abortion, and women who are living as single parents, suffer
religious-inspired stigma and discrimination. In some Catholic countries, like
Ireland and Poland, abortion is illegal. In others, like Italy, abortion rights
are under constant threat from the Vatican's pressure on the government.
To the delight of homophobes everywhere, the pope propagandises that being gay
is an "objective disorder", "grave depravity" and a "tendency towards an
intrinsic moral evil". In 1992, the Vatican officially rejected the concept of
lesbian and gay "human rights", asserting that there is "no right" to
homosexuality. It added that the civil liberties of homosexuals can be
"legitimately limited". While condemning "unjust" discrimination, the Catholic
leadership declared that some forms of anti-gay discrimination are "not unjust"
and may even be "obligatory".
In around 80 countries male homosexuality is still illegal, with penalties
ranging up to life imprisonment and even death by execution. Last December, a
proposal to decriminalise homosexuality and protect gay people against
discrimination was opposed by the Vatican in the UN and by fellow religious
bigots in the Organisation of Islamic States.
In contrast, if Catholics suffer discrimination I will be the first to defend
them. Equally, when the pope supports discrimination against women and gay
people I will be the first to oppose him. That is the difference between me and
the pope. I reject all discrimination, including against Catholics. He supports
sexist and homophobic discrimination whenever it suits his intolerant
interpretation of the Christian faith. That is why the Vatican must be opposed
and why I will be joining Saturday's march in London.
No to Vatican. Protest Saturday 14 February 2009. Assemble at 2pm outside the
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD (near the corner with
Exhibition Road).
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Peter Tatchell: Just say no to the Vatican
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk at 19.30 GMT on Friday 13
February 2009. It was last updated at 19.30 GMT on Friday 13 February 2009.
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