Posted on 02/05/2007 5:07:28 AM PST by Disturbin
Pope Benedict XVI spoke out amid a debate over plans to legalise civil partnerships in Italy, defending traditional marriage in an address to Catholic worshipper.
"We know very well how the family based on marriage forms the natural setting for the birth and education of children, and is therefore a guarantee of the future of all humanity," the pope said at his Angelus prayers.
A debate is raging in predominantly Catholic, socially conservative, Italy as the government prepares to put forward a bill later this month to grant legal status to unmarried couples regardless of sexual orientation.
The plan has been repeatedly attacked by the right-wing opposition as well as the Vatican, which has been accused of meddling in the nation's political affairs.
The pontiff's comments came a day after authorities in the northern city of Padua formally registered two civil partnerships -- one homosexual, the other heterosexual -- without waiting for the legislation to come into effect.
The traditional family faces "a deep crisis," Benedict said Sunday in his address on Saint Peter's Square where he called for married people, the church and public institutions to "defend, aid, protect and empower" the family.
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