This week the Archdiocese of São Paulo's "Justice and Peace Committee" issued a statement invoking the Second Vatican Council "in defense" of the "dignity" of "citizenship [civil liberties] and safety of homosexual people" to mark São Paulo's upcoming 18th Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Travesties and Transsexual Pride Parade.
The Archdiocese of São Paulo is Brazil's largest diocese, with nearly 6 million Catholics. It is headed by Odilo Cardinal Scherer, one of the frontrunner papabili of 2013.
Emphases ours.
Committee of the Archdiocese of São Paulo defends the dignity of gays
The text was published just a few days before the 18th Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Travesties and Transsexual Pride Parade, which will take place next SundaySÃO PAULO – Last Wednesday (April 30th), the Justice and Peace Committee of the Archdiocese of São Paulo published a release in “defense of the dignity of citizenship [i.e. civil liberties] and safety of homosexual people. The text was published just a few days before the 18th Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Travesties and Transsexual Pride Parade of São Paulo, which shall take place next Sunday, (4th), at Avenida Paulista.“We cannot be silent in view of the reality experienced by such population, which is a target of prejudice and victim of systematic violation to their fundamental rights such as health, education, work, living, and culture, among others”, stated the Catholic Church related entity in a press release. The committee says also that the LGBTs “endure unbearable verbal and physical violence on a daily basis, culminating in murders, which are true hatred crimes”.The entity invites “people of good will and, particularly, all Christians to reflect upon such deeply unfair reality faced by LGBT people, in order to actively use their best efforts to overcome it, guided by the supreme principle of human dignity”.Still according to the press release, the entity’s stand, “faithful to its mission of announcing and defending the evangelic and civilizational values of human rights, grounded on the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, approved by the Second Vatican Council: 'The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ'", says the document.To give voice. The director of the Justice and Peace Committee of the archdiocese, Geraldo Magela Tardelli, stated that this is the first time the committee “formally” writes in behalf of homosexual people.” The committee has a mission, according to Bishop Paulo Evaristo Ars: 'we have to give voice to those who are voiceless’. At this time, we are noticing that there is a growth of violence against homosexual people, so we cannot be silent in relation to such violation to human rights”, stated the director.According to him, the holding of the Gay Parade has determined the disclosure of the press release. “We think that this was the right time to disclose this release. We from the Church are engaged in defending the human rights and do not agree with any kind of violence, irrespective of color and sexual orientation of people”, says Tardelli.
Source. Among the "citizenship" "rights" included within the "dignity" of such persons is probably the "right" to homosexual "marriage" and adoption rights, recognized by national courts in the past couple of years, naturally without any episcopal action.
Translation into English by Fratres in Unum, with slight corrections.
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It is remarkable that this statement came out barely 3 days after the canonization of the Pope in whose reign the following judgment was passed on calls to stop "discrimination" against homosexuals:
"Sexual orientation” does not constitute a quality comparable to race, ethnic background, etc. in respect to non-discrimination. Unlike these, homosexual orientation is an objective disorder (cf. Letter, no. 3) and evokes moral concern. There are areas in which it is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account, for example, in the placement of children for adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or athletic coaches, and in military recruitment. Homosexual persons, as human persons, have the same rights as all persons including the right of not being treated in a manner which offends their personal dignity (cf. no. 10). Among other rights, all persons have the right to work, to housing, etc. Nevertheless, these rights are not absolute. They can be legitimately limited for objectively disordered external conduct. This is sometimes not only licit but obligatory. ...
Including “homosexual orientation” among the considerations on the basis of which it is illegal to discriminate can easily lead to regarding homosexuality as a positive source of human rights, for example, in respect to so-called affirmative action or preferential treatment in hiring practices. This is all the more deleterious since there is no right to homosexuality (cf. no. 10) which therefore should not form the basis for judicial claims. The passage from the recognition of homosexuality as a factor on which basis it is illegal to discriminate can easily lead, if not automatically, to the legislative protection and promotion of homosexuality. A person's homosexuality would be invoked in opposition to alleged discrimination, and thus the exercise of rights would be defended precisely via the affirmation of the homosexual condition instead of in terms of a violation of basic human rights.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
July 24, 1992
