Nov 14, 2008   | COMMENTS     

MADRID, Spain (AP) — A journalist is defending the accuracy of a book in which she quotes Spain’s Queen Sofia as criticizing the country’s legalization of gay marriage, dragging the normally tightlipped monarchy into a rare public spat.

Spain’s king and queen are largely respected as figurehead representatives of the state, and rarely speak out on political or social issues. Veteran journalist Pilar Urbano released the book — “La Reina muy de cerca,” or “The Queen, very close up” — to mark the queen’s 70th birthday. The journalist said it was based on 15 interviews with Queen Sofia, and that the Royal Palace approved the book’s galley proofs before it was published, according to news agency Efe.

“What the queen said is what my book says,” Urbano said. The Royal Palace has challenged the comments attributed to the monarch, however, saying in a statement they “do not correspond exactly” with what was said. The palace also said the book fails to reflect the queen’s traditional neutrality on public affairs or respect for people who suffer discrimination. “I do not answer to the queen or king, or the Royal Palace. I answer only to the truth,” Urbano told Efe.

The queen’s alleged remarks on same-sex marriage have angered gay rights groups. “If those persons want to live together, dress up as bride and groom and get married, they can do so, but that should not be called marriage because it is not,” the queen is quoted as saying in Urbano’s book. Spain legalized gay marriage in 2005, becoming one of the few countries in the world to recognize same-sex couples as having the same rights as opposite-sex couples.

Vatican issues guidelines for screening seminarians

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has issued new psychological screening guidelines for seminarians, the latest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to be more selective about its priesthood candidates following a series of sex abuse scandals. The guidelines are designed to help church leaders weed out candidates with “psychopathic disturbances,” and note that problems such as “confused or not yet well-defined” sexual identities need to be addressed.

A 2005 Vatican document said men with “deep-seated” homosexual tendencies shouldn’t be ordained, but that those with a “transitory problem” could become priests if they had overcome them for three years. The Vatican considers homosexual activity sinful. The new guidelines reflect the earlier teaching, stressing that if a future priest shows “deep-seated homosexual tendencies,” his seminary training “would have to be interrupted.” The guidelines say priests must have a “positive and stable sense of one’s masculine identity” and the capacity to “integrate his sexuality in accordance” with the obligation of celibacy. Experts on sex offenders contend homosexuals are no more likely than heterosexuals to molest children.

New York mother holds Vienna vigil for missing son

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — A New York mother held a moving candlelight vigil for her son in the Austrian capital two weeks ago to mark the one-year anniversary of his mysterious disappearance. Aeryn Gilleran vanished on Oct. 29, 2007, while working in Vienna for the United Nations’ Industrial Development Organization.

Twelve months later, the case remains unsolved. Kathy Gilleran, a retired police officer, alleges Vienna authorities never properly carried out an investigation. After six weeks of frantic searching last fall, she returned to Austria to demand answers.

“I’m not going down without a fight,” Gilleran said as she stood amid candles in the doorway of a church in central Vienna clutching a poster of her son, who was 34 when he went missing. “Even if nothing comes of it, at least as a parent I’ll know I did everything I could.” Gilleran’s vigil took place across the street from a high-end gay sauna where Aeryn, who was openly gay, went after work the night he disappeared.