VATICAN
CITY
—
Speaking
just
10
days
ahead
of
Italy’s
national
elections,
Pope
Benedict
XVI
lashed
out
against
gay
marriage
and
abortion
on
March
30
and
said
the
Church
had
the
right
to
speak
out
on
political
issues,
Reuters
reported.
Opposition
center-left
politicians
who
advocate
some
legal
recognition
of
the
rights
of
unmarried
heterosexual
and
gay
couples
accused
the
pope
of
meddling
in
politics.
Addressing
lawmakers
from
the
European
People’s
Party
(EPP),
Benedict
said
the
Church’s
position
on
such
issues
was
"non-negotiable,"
Reuters
reported.
Benedict
said
the
Church
had
a
right
and
duty
to
defend
"the
recognition
and
promotion
of
the
natural
structure
of
the
family
as
a
union
between
a
man
and
a
woman
based
on
marriage."
Opposition
politicians
criticized
the
pope’s
comments
as
political
interference.
"It
is
people
who
decide
whether
their
relationships
constitute
a
family
...
Not
everyone
shares
the
pope’s
point
of
view,"
said
Franco
Grillini,
a
gay
parliamentarian
of
the
Democrats
of
the
Left,
Italy’s
largest
leftist
party.
A
survey
released
earlier
this
year
cast
doubt
on
how
much
influence
the
Church
will
have
on
the
elections,
with
a
majority
of
Italian
Catholics
disagreeing
with
papal
doctrine
on
some
moral
and
social
issues.
Gift
to
cardinal
angers
some
San
Fran
officials
SAN
FRANCISCO
—
San
Francisco
Police
Commissioner
Joe
Alioto
Veronese
upset
some
city
officials
after
he
attended
the
installation
of
William
Levada
as
Cardinal
during
ceremonies
in
Rome
and
presented
him
with
a
paperweight
from
the
city,
Reuters
reported.
Levada
was
archbishop
of
San
Francisco
before
becoming
a
cardinal
March
29.
Pope
Benedict
XVI
also
named
him
to
be
Prefect
of
the
Congregation
for
the
Doctrine
of
Faith
as
well
as
dean
of
the
new
group
of
cardinals.
Mayor
Gavin
Newsome
and
other
San
Francisco
city
dignitaries
boycotted
Levada’s
installation
because
Levada
called
for
Catholic
Charities
to
stop
allowing
same-sex
couples
to
adopt.
Angela
Alioto,
a
former
city
supervisor
and
the
police
commissioner’s
mother,
organized
their
trip
to
the
Vatican.
She
got
the
crystal
paperweight
etched
with
the
San
Francisco’s
official
seal
from
the
city’s
office
of
protocol,
Reuters
reported.
Asheville
minister
resigns
ordination
over
gay
unions
ASHEVILLE,
N.C.
—
Rev.
Howard
Hanger
announced
March
26
that
he
will
turn
in
his
ordination
to
the
United
Methodist
Church.
Hanger
told
the
congregation
of
Jubilee!
Community,
a
nondenominational
church,
that
his
decision
was
due
to
his
difference
with
the
denomination
over
its
stance
on
gay
unions,
the
Asheville
Citizen-Times
reported.
Hanger
joins
Revs.
Joe
Hoffman
and
Mark
Ward
in
protesting
institutional
stances
on
same-sex
marriages.
Hoffman,
pastor
of
the
200-member
First
Congregational
United
Church
of
Christ
in
Asheville,
and
Ward,
pastor
of
the
540-member
Unitarian
Universalist
Church
of
Asheville,
both
announced
in
recent
weeks
that
they
would
no
longer
perform
civil
marriage
ceremonies
for
North
Carolina
until
the
state
recognizes
same-sex
marriages.
In
a
written
statement,
Hanger
called
the
decision
"a
no-brainer,
but
a
heavy-hearter."
Conservative
rabbis’
rulechange
may
help
gays
MEXICO
CITY
—
In
a
move
that
could
make
it
easier
to
permit
gay
rabbis
and
same-sex
unions,
members
of
the
Conservative
movement’s
Rabbinical
Assembly
voted
March
22
to
lower
the
threshold
for
approving
major
revisions
to
rabbinic
and
even
biblical
law,
the
Forward,
a
N.Y.
Jewish
weekly,
reported.
The
measure
allows
the
Conservative
movement’s
top
lawmaking
body,
the
Committee
on
Jewish
Law
&
Standards,
to
approve
major
revisions
to
rabbinic
law
with
the
approval
of
13
out
of
25
voting
members.
It
overturns
the
decision
by
the
assembly’s
executive
council
last
June
to
establish
a
20-vote
threshold
for
major
changes.
The
procedural
issue
had
become
the
subject
of
great
debate
among
Conservative
rabbis
after
the
law
committee
met
earlier
this
month
to
reconsider
the
movement’s
stance
on
homosexuality.
Following
the
law
committee’s
recent
meeting,
some
movement
rabbis
criticized
the
executive
council
for
approving
a
significant
rule
change
in
the
middle
of
the
movement’s
reevaluation
of
homosexuality
and
for
failing
to
communicate
about
the
change.
