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The
request was made at a Vatican meeting two days after the United
Nations said Brunei was violating human rights by implementing
Islamic laws that would allow death by stoning for adultery and
homosexuality.
Brunei has defended its right to implement the laws.
About 50 lawyers and gay advocates, led by Baroness Helena Ann
Kennedy, director of the International Bar Association's Human
Rights Institute, met Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican
secretary of state and gave him a study on criminalization of
homosexuality in the Caribbean.
She said Parolin was "very responsive" to the ideas put forward
by the group and thanked Pope Francis for having shown
"compassion and understanding" to the gay community.
"Obviously there are issues that are doctrinal but the point
that we were making and which I think he (Parolin) accepted is
that this is absolutely about the Church's teaching about
respecting human dignity," she told reporters.
The Church teaches that, while homosexual tendencies are not
sinful, homosexual acts are but it also says that the human
dignity of homosexuals must be respected and defended.
"What we need is a very clear statement, from the Roman Catholic
Church at least, that criminalization is wrong," said Leonardo
Javier Raznovich, lead researcher of a Caribbean report, which
they gave to Parolin.
In 2008, the Vatican called for decriminalization of
homosexuality but opposed a non-binding U.N. resolution on the
issue because it believed that other parts of it equated
same-sex unions with heterosexual marriage.
Catholic bishops around the world have had differing responses
to laws to decriminalize homosexuality.
"The Church needs to have a clear policy where, if they believe
in human rights, if they believe in the dignity of the human
being, as they actively preach, they need to make sure that the
Church throughout the world has the same response," Raznovich
said.
A Vatican statement said: "Parolin extended a brief greeting to
those present, repeating the Catholic Church's position in
defense of the dignity of every human person and against every
form of violence."
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the a U.S.-based
Catholic LGBT rights group New Ways Ministry, said the Vatican
meeting was "a great step forward for improving the relationship
between LGBT people and the Catholic Church but more urgent
statements and actions are needed".
(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Edmund Blair)
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