“When legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic law-maker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favour of … [such a law] is gravely immoral.” — Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons, March 28, 2003.

Ratzinger was head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith immediately before he became pontiff. The congregation was once known as the Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition and retained that name till 1908: it was responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in medieval Europe.

From Green Left Weekly, August 10, 2005.
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