Het Vaticaan zei maandag dat de katholieke kerk geen unies van hetzelfde geslacht zal zegenen.
“In sommige kerkelijke kringen circuleren projecten en voorstellen om koppels van hetzelfde geslacht te zegenen”, zegt een document uitgegeven door de Congregatie voor de Geloofsleer. “Het antwoord op de vraag” Heeft de kerk het gezag om hen te zegenen? is “negatief”.
De Heilige Stoel legde zijn beslissing uit in een lange brief en noemde homoseksualiteit een ‘keuze’ en ‘zonde’, en stelde dat het ‘niet kan worden herkend als een objectief doel’ in overeenstemming met Gods voornemen.
“De zegen van homoseksuele vakbonden kan niet als legitiem worden beschouwd”, zei de belangrijkste leerstellige afdeling van het Vaticaan in een schriftelijke verklaring.
Tegelijkertijd voegen ze aan de congregaties toe dat de zegen van bepaalde vertegenwoordigers van de LGBT-gemeenschap niet is uitgesloten.
‘De Kerk van de Heer zal niet stoppen met het zegenen van haar kinderen, maar ze kan de zonde niet zegenen. Ze kan een zondaar zegenen en hem erkennen als een deel van haar universum’, legt het document uit.
Paus Franciscus, die vaak werd geprezen om zijn tolerante toon tegenover vertegenwoordigers van de LGBT-gemeenschap in de kerk en daarbuiten, keurde deze boodschap goed, merkt CNN op.
Afgelopen herfst veroorzaakten berichten dat de leider van de katholieke kerk naar verluidt opriep tot de goedkeuring van een “wet op burgerlijke vakbonden” een brede weerklank. Maar later stuurde het Vaticaanse Staatssecretariaat een “verklarende nota” – het zei dat de woorden van paus Franciscus, die werden gezien als een goedkeuring van het homohuwelijk, “uit hun verband werden gehaald”.
On March 11, the film “Supernova” was released in Russia with Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci in the title role. The film tells the story of a gay couple in which one of the partners is rapidly losing his memory.
But the Russian distributor cut out a three-minute intimate scene with two main characters from the picture.
The director of the film, Harry McQueen, said he opposed the censorship of his film in Russia.
“We, the filmmakers, are strongly opposed to the Supernova censorship in Russia. It is deeply troubling that the film was edited without our permission and against our will,” the statement said.
Sergei Shcherbinin, director of the World Pictures distribution company, declined to comment. Later, the distributor released the full version of the film “Supernova” in Russia.
The press service of the company said that “the essence and message of the film is not in the problems of LGBT people, but in something else – in love, in support, in the pain of losing a loved one, in salvation and in freedom of choice.” They referred to McQueen’s statement, who said that it would be better if Russian viewers saw the film in a cut-down form than not at all.
“Due to the fact that there was a lot of excitement around the film, which fueled interest in the full version of the film, all those who want to see it can contact their cinemas, which usually respond promptly to such requests,” the BBC said. -si at World Pictures. – Any cinemas that decide to release the full version of the film and let us know about it, we will be happy to provide it. “
“Naturally, after permission from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation,” the company added. “The viewer votes, and this is the main thing. Therefore, we hope that the full version of the film can be seen in cinemas this week.”
What happened?
The distribution company, while preparing “Supernova” for the Russian distribution, cut out from the film a three-minute sex scene of the main characters.
At the same time, the film was still released with the mark “18+”.
The film’s director, Harry McQueen, said he understands the pressure that Russian distributors are subjected to, but the filmmaking team “will not tolerate this kind of censorship.”
“We want the film to be shown in its original, unedited form around the world,” the director said in a statement.
“As a team, we stand in solidarity with LGBTQ + communities around the world and have expressed our deep concern to the Russian distributor.”
According to film critic Zinaida Pronchenko, the distributor feared that cinemas would refuse to show the full version of the film.
The orientation of the main characters is not mentioned in the press materials sent out by the distributor.
“Now the inattentive viewer may well think that this is a picture of a strong male friendship”, – sums up the film critic Anton Dolin.
The film tells the story of a gay couple in which a writer named Tasker Mulliner, played by Tucci, is rapidly losing his memory.
Therefore, the couple decides to go on a journey so that the writer has time to write a novel before his memory leaves him.
The film received mostly high reviews from critics.
“Of course,” Supernova “is primarily a film about accepting the death of a loved one, and homosexuality is by no means its central theme. But the entire emotional mood of the film is lost and meaningless when significant details in the characters’ relationships are lost: we say goodbye to a loved one differently than to a friend This means that the most important thing has been removed from the film – the key to its understanding, “writes Anton Dolin.
“McQueen does not need to justify the sexual orientation of his characters, he does not need to make a plot mechanism out of it – because then homosexuality will be shown as exotic, as something that must be justified, otherwise it simply will not find a place in history,” film critic Efim Gungin comments on the film …
In 2019, the film “Rocketman”, based on the biography of the English singer and composer Sir Elton John, was similarly censored.
The film was released in Russia without a sex scene of two men and the end credits, which say that the singer is now married to a man.
“We reject in the strongest terms the decision to indulge local laws and censor Rocketman for the Russian market,” Elton John and the filmmakers said in a joint statement.
In Russia, there is a law prohibiting “the propaganda of non-traditional relationships among minors.”
In the resolution of the conference “Legal and Legislative Aspects of Supporting Families and Family Values in the Russian Federation”, which was held today in the State Duma as part of the United Russia party’s “Strong Family” project, they called for tougher responsibility for homopropaganda, as well as banning propaganda of many – from polyamory to transsexuality.
In the resolution of the conference, which is at the disposal of RIA Novosti, it is proposed to amend the law “On information, information technologies and on the protection of information.” The purpose of the changes is “a ban on the promotion of sex change, a ban on the promotion of bisexuality, transgender (transsexualism), and polyamory.” In addition, clerics insist on tougher administrative responsibility for “promoting non-traditional relations.” Another requirement of homophobic people is a ban on the use of LGBT symbols in state institutions.
Recall that the so-called “homopropaganda” was banned in Russia at the federal level in July 2013. A month earlier, the State Duma adopted a law supplementing the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation with Article 6.21, establishing responsibility for “promoting non-traditional sexual relations among minors”, also known as “Mizulina’s law.”
In June 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found Mizulina’s “law” discriminatory. The ECHR ordered the Russian authorities to pay the three gay activists who filed the lawsuit 49,100 euros in compensation for material and moral damage, as well as legal costs. The State Duma promised to “roll up into a tube and use like toilet paper” this decision of the ECHR. The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in September 2017 challenged the verdict of the ECHR under the “law of Mizulina”.
Lyudmila Stebenkova, a deputy from United Russia, spoke about her intention to introduce new bans on the “propaganda” of gender reassignment, polyamory, bisexuality, etc.
“At our meeting there were a lot of young people from legal institutions. One of them spoke and said that if you go to social networks today, recruit a specific group, you will see that what is being promoted there contradicts all the norms of the law …” – said 62-year-old Stebenkova in an interview with Fontanka, commenting on the proposal for new bans. She clarified that it is about “transsexuality, bisexuality and LGBT”.
According to Stebenkova, every day up to 200 such groups are “closed by law enforcement agencies and Roskomnadzor.” “I’m telling you this about the existing law enforcement practice,” Stebenkova said, adding: “If you want to reduce the interview to issues of propaganda of gay, I will answer with one phrase. I believe that propaganda of gay, childfree, transgender and all kinds of similar trends does not contribute to an increase in the birth rate in the country and to overcome the demographic crisis. And this is where we will finish. “
Earlier it was reported: in the resolution of the conference “Legal and legislative aspects of supporting families and family values in the Russian Federation”, which was held on March 4 in the State Duma as part of the project of the United Russia party – “Strong Family”, there is a demand to toughen the responsibility for homopropaganda, as well as to establish the prohibition of propaganda is a lot of things – from polyamory to transsexuality.
On February 16, the prosecutor’s office of the Khabarovsk Territory, on a fourth attempt, approved the indictment against LGBT activist and artist Yulia Tsvetkova.
Tsvetkova is accused of distributing pornography (point “b” of part 3 of article 242 of the Criminal Code) due to the publication of body-positive drawings in the public “Monologues of the Vagina”. She faces up to six years in prison.
On June 9, 2020, Yulia Tsvetkova was charged for the first time. The prosecutor’s office returned the case materials three times for further investigation. Before the activist was placed under house arrest, a search was carried out in her house, during which all the equipment was seized. The artist was under house arrest for more than four months. On March 16, 2020, the preventive measure was changed to recognizance not to leave.
In addition to the criminal case, Yulia Tsvetkova was charged under administrative articles “on propaganda” for her publications on the social network “VKontakte”. The court twice imposed fines – 50,000 and 75,000 rubles.
Julia and her mother constantly receive insults and threats in their address, but, unfortunately, the police do not react to this in any way. So, in December, they were sent two coffins and two funeral wreaths …
Yulia Tsvetkova’s problems began in March 2019. Then the police officers had a conversation with the artists of the youth activist theater “Merak”. Schoolchildren were preparing a festival, one of the performances of which was called “Blue and Pink”. The theater was directed by Yulia Tsvetkova. The police became active after several anonymous statements were written on Tsvetkova asking for a check, and the theater was denied a site for the festival. The anonymous letters attached to the case said that Tsvetkova “incites hatred against men and promotes non-traditional family values among children.”
The petition, the authors of which draw attention to the situation with the persecution by the authorities of the laureate of the international prize “Freedom of Expression” feminist Yulia Tsvetkova, demanding an end to her persecution, has been signed today by almost 250,000 people.
Last year, we recall, Tsvetkova was included in the list of the 100 most influential women in the world, compiled by the BBC World Service, and her work was acquired by the Stedelejk Museum (Amsterdam) in its collection.
