U.S. Embassy officials in Warsaw, Poland, under the Obama administration complained that Catholic Church\u00a0doctrine is a major source of \u201chomophobia\u201d in the heavily Catholic country, according to diplomatic\u00a0cables released by Wikileaks.<\/p>\n
The messages from the American embassy in Poland’s capital, marked \u201csensitive but unclassified,\u201d were part of a dump of over 250,000 official government documents by the anti-secrecy website.<\/p>\n
An August 2009 \u00a0cable from the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw dated criticized the Catholic Church as being central in promoting \u201chomophobia\u201d in the former Soviet-controlled country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Catholic Church plays a significant role in the formation and propagation of anti-gay attitudes in Polish society, especially in rural areas,\u201d states the communiqu\u00e9 entitled \u201cGay rights in Poland: long road ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not explained is why\u00a0the American embassy is involved in a matter of such sensitivity within a friendly nation.<\/p>\n
Officials did note that \u201cthe Polish Episcopate has condemned violence and discrimination against gays and lesbians,\u201d but said that message is ignored by local priests teaching that sexual attraction to the same gender is \u201ca deviant condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMoreover, the Church continues to label homosexual acts as sins and calls on homosexuals to practice abstinence. Most Polish opponents of gay rights cite \u2018Catholic values\u2019 and \u2018natural law\u2019 to support their views,\u201d the cable continues.<\/p>\n
Within the United States, the same position is taken by the Catholic church and most evangelical denominations. Only a small minority of “liberal” mainstream churches have stopped calling homosexual practice sinful, will perform homosexual marriages or ordain homosexual clergy.<\/p>\n
The leaked cables noted that some Polish lawmakers are readying defenses against acceptance of homosexuality in schools by drafting legislation similar to a law in Lithuania that bans favorable depictions of homosexuality.<\/p>\n
Despite cultural and political hurdles, the American embassy appeared optimistic that the gay rights movement would eventually take hold in Poland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. Embassy officials in Warsaw, Poland, under the Obama administration complained that Catholic Church\u00a0doctrine is a major source of \u201chomophobia\u201d in the heavily Catholic country, according to diplomatic\u00a0cables released by Wikileaks. The messages from the American embassy in Poland’s capital, marked \u201csensitive but unclassified,\u201d were part of a dump of over 250,000 official government documents…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[363,416,364,284],"class_list":["post-2514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians","tag-catholics","tag-christians","tag-homosexual","tag-poland-2"],"yoast_head":"\n