VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican has compiled a dictionary of words like ``reproductive rights'' and ``gender'' in a bid to clarify what it says are neutral-sounding terms that can mask anti-Church meanings.
The 1,000-page Lexicon, containing 78 key terms about family, life and ethical questions, is due to be published soon, according to Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family.
In an interview with the religious affairs monthly 30 Giorni, or 30 Days, Lopez Trujillo said the Vatican decided to compile the Lexicon after hearing complaints from non-governmental organizations about ``ambiguous'' terms used at the United Nations and other international organizations.
The Vatican has long been at odds with the United Nations over what it sees as policies that go against Church teaching. The Vatican, for example, often voices opposition to U.N. documents concerning sex education, population and condom use as a way to prevent HIV infection.
In the interview, Lopez Trujillo gave examples of terms the Vatican wanted to clarify, such as ``gender,'' ``reproductive rights,'' and the ``Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women,'' a U.N. treaty guaranteeing rights for women.
Lopez Trujillo said that a basic word like ``gender'' takes on other connotations in international meetings and ``is used to signify a radical ideological feminism.''
``Reproductive rights,'' meanwhile ``is used for propaganda not for the right to reproduction but to freedom for abortion,'' he was quoted as saying.
He said the name of the U.N. treaty, commonly referred to by its acronym CEDAW, sounded good on the surface: that women shouldn't be discriminated against.
``But if you dig a little, you come to know that this CEDAW serves to protect women from marriage and from giving birth to children, which according to the feminist ideology would absolutely be two forms of slavery.''
Lopez Trujillo gave the interview ahead of the Roman Catholic Church's conference on family values starting this weekend in the Philippines. Lopez Trujillo, a conservative cardinal from Colombia, is Pope John Paul II's representative at the meeting.