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Kerry criticizes Vatican pressure

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0803/02kerry.html

Kerry criticizes Vatican pressure
Democrat blasts anti-gay rights plan

Associated Press

BOSTON -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry scolded the Vatican on Friday for saying Catholic politicians like him have a "moral duty" to oppose laws granting legal rights to gay couples.

"I believe in the church, and I care about it enormously," said the Massachusetts senator. "But I think that it's important to not have the church instructing politicians. That is an inappropriate crossing of the line in America."

The Vatican had urged Catholics and non-Catholics on Thursday to unite in campaigning against gay marriages and gay adoptions. The 12-page document issued by the church presents a battle plan for politicians confronted with legislation legalizing same-sex unions and rails against gay adoption.

The document calls on Catholic politicians to vote against laws granting legal recognition to homosexual unions and to work to repeal those already on the books.

"To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral," it said, although it didn't specify penalties for Catholics who do.

Kerry opposes gay marriage, saying it is a right reserved in America for men and women, but he has said gay couples should have the same legal rights as husbands and wives.

When it returns from its August recess, the Senate will begin hearings to determine whether new laws are necessary to strengthen the federal definition of marriage as union between a man and a woman, Republicans have indicated.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal recognition of same-sex marriages and allowed states to ignore same-sex unions licensed elsewhere.

President Bush said at a White House news conference Wednesday that he believed "a marriage is between a man and a woman, and I think we ought to codify that one way or the other."

Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said the next daythe White House was studying possible responses if pending lawsuits in Massachusetts and New Jersey resulted in legalization of gay marriage.

Some Republicans in Congress also are pushing for a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages.