Vatican backs gay decriminalization, not U.N. measure

By Phil Stewart

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican Friday urged governments around the world to decriminalize homosexuality but said a proposed U.N. resolution on the issue went too far.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the Holy See's delegation explained the position at the United Nations late on Thursday, criticizing the wording of a European-backed text that champions decriminalization of homosexuality.

"The Holy See continues to advocate that every sign of unjust discrimination toward homosexual persons should be avoided and urges States to do away with criminal penalties against them," read the delegation's remarks, released by the Vatican on its website (www.vatican.va) Friday.

"At the same time, the Holy See notes that the wording of this declaration goes well beyond the above mentioned and shared intent."

The Vatican singled out the categories of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" in the text, saying "these would create serious uncertainty in the law" -- in what appeared to be reference to its well-known concerns about gay marriage.

The Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, has previously warned the proposed European-backed text could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage.

"If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations," Migliore told a French Catholic news agency. "For example, states which do not recognize same-sex unions as 'matrimony' will be pilloried and made an object of pressure."

The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It also opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality "a deviation, an irregularity and a wound."