Pope Benedict XVI, right, acknowledges the crowd during his weekly general audience in Hall Paul VI, at the Vatican, Wednesday.(Photo: Alessandra Tarantino, AP)
VATICAN CITY -- The pope has taken his opposition to gay marriage
to new heights with a strong denunciation of how people today are
manipulating their sex and gender to alter their God-given nature.
Benedict
made the comments Friday in his annual Christmas speech to the Vatican
bureaucracy – one of his most important speeches of the year and one he
dedicated this year to promoting family values.
In it, Benedict
quoted the chief rabbi of France in saying the campaign for granting
gays the right to marry was an "attack" on the traditional family made
up of a father, mother and children.
Benedict also issued a
denunciation of gay marriage in his recently released annual peace
message, saying gay marriage, like abortion and euthanasia, was a threat
to world peace.
Associated Press