Giving a new twist to his campaign for the respect of Roman Catholic values in families and society at large, Pope John Paul II on Friday called on judges and law-makers to pay more attention to Church dictums.
Magistrates and legislators, who "take decisions regardless of moral values" and agree to de facto unions disregard "the specific juridical and social value of the family," said the pope in a meeting with Catholic legal experts.
The Vatican frequently uses the term de facto unions as a code for same-sex relationships, which have been legalized by a number of European countries.
He also warned against putting alternative lifestyles on an equal legal footing with the nuclear family, as these allegedly upset matrimonial, family and social relations and specific commitments between men and women.
The papal warning came only three days after the Vatican identified the breakup of the traditional family as the root cause of most of the ills affecting modern society including pedophilia, prostitution and AIDS.
The Vatican also called for gays to be refused the right to adopt children -- VATICAN CITY (AFP)
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