The Vatican issued guidelines for Roman Catholic politicians Thursday that underlined the church’s opposition to abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriages and told Catholics not to promote laws that favor those practices.
While the church positions in the guidelines are not new, the guidelines seek to remind Catholics of what the Vatican cast as their duty at a time when legislation in many countries has moved in directions that displease many church officials.
“Those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life,” say the guidelines, written and published by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
“For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them,” the guidelines said.
