Same-sex unions “penalize” natural marriage in law: Pope Benedict
Image via Wikipedia Pope Benedict XVI told Italian politicians today that the imposition of legally recognized same-sex unions “penalizes” natural marriage. In an address to political, business and social leaders of the city and province of Rome and the Lazio region , the pope said that the natural family , made up of one man and one woman bound in marriage with their children, is the “basic cell” of society in which “children learn the human and Christian values that make possible constructive and peaceful coexistence .” “The approval of forms of union that pervert the essence and end of the family, ends by penalizing all those who, not without effort, are committed to living stable affective bonds, guaranteed juridically and recognized publicly,” Benedict said. Lazio is the most populous of Italy ’s regions (equivalent to a state or a province) and is the country’s government and financial hub because it includes the capital city of Rome . The pope decried the region’s high rates