Rome:

leave gays alone'
Church opposes discrimination
BY BRUCE JOHNSTON IN ROME
THE VATJC.'AN took a further step in the direction of accepting homosexuals within the fold this week, when its official L'Osservatore Romano newspaper spoke out against discrimination faced by gay men and women.
Gay people had rights to live and work like anyone else, and were "able to hold down state and local administrative jobs without any prejudicial objection being raised concerning their sexual proclivities, Fr Gino Concetti, chief theologian on the newspaper, wrote.
His interventions follows several months after an article in the same newspaper which said that gays, too, could become saints. That article came soon after a series of attacks against gays by the Catholic Church that appeared to be part of a concerted campaign.
Turning the tables, and carrying out an in-depth investigation into the whole gamut of Christian patrimony, ranging form the Bible to the teachings of the present Pope, Fr Concetti has now come to the conclusion that most claims made by gay rights groups are just.
Gay people, the theologian said, had a right to be able to openly manifest their feelings, "using whatever means that technology puts at their disposal," to work without being discriminated against, and to form associations, even if the ends of some, in the newspaper's opinion, could not ethically justify the means.
But it added that the right to have or adopt a child, to live together and build a relationship as a couple were "juridical demands."
Talking later to an Italian news agency, Fr Concetti urged for "tougher legislation" in order to punish transgressors of the dignity and rights of others, even when it concerns their sexuality." But the only "profession" that a gay could not become part of, the theologian stressed , was that of the priesthood.
In this case, the Church was not guilty of discrimination, but was only concerned with "protecting the dignity of the sacraments, and the spiritual wellbeing of the faithful". Otherwise, he said, "homosexuals can participate actively in the life of the Church".
The Catechism calls for understanding of homosexuality. "The number of men and women who have deepseated homosexual tendencies is not negligible," it says.
"They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided."