http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4473001.stm 


New Pope condemns Spain gay bill 
By Robert Piggott 
BBC News, Rome 


 
The vote was welcomed by Spanish gay rights campaigners
Pope Benedict XVI has responded firmly to the first challenge of his
papacy by condemning a Spanish government bill allowing marriage
between homosexuals.
The bill, passed by parliament's Socialist-dominated lower house, also
allows gay couples to adopt.
A senior Vatican official described the bill - which is likely to
become law within a few months - as iniquitous.
He said Roman Catholic officials should be prepared to lose their jobs
rather than co-operate with the law.
The bill would make Spain the first European country to allow
homosexual people to marry and adopt children.
Belgium and the Netherlands only allow same-sex marriages. It is also
a dramatic step in the rapid secularisation of what was once one of
the most devoutly Roman Catholic countries in Europe.
The head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal
Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, denounced the legislation as profoundly
iniquitous.
Secular state 
Interviewed in the Italian newspaper, Corriere de la Serra, Cardinal
Lopez Trujillo said the Church was making an urgent call for freedom
of conscience for Roman Catholics and appealing to them to resist the
law.
He said every profession linked with implementing homosexual marriages
should oppose it, even if it meant losing their jobs.
The cardinal insisted that just because something was made law it did
not make it right.
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took office a
year ago making it clear he intended to remove what he called the
church's undeniable advantages and make Spain a secular state.
There are likely to be further tensions with Pope Benedict XVI. Mr
Zapatero has made it clear that he intends to streamline divorce law
and even to relax the conditions placed on abortion.
-- 
Cheers,

Gabe Menezes.
London, England

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