A controversial new Vatican glossary of sexual terms says homosexuals are not normal and that countries which allow gay marriages are inhabited by people with "profoundly disordered minds."
Italy's gay community immediately condemned the glossary of nearly 900 pages, which hit the bookstores on Monday, as part of what they called a new anti-homosexual crusade.
The glossary, prepared by the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, covers themes such as sexuality, condoms, abortion, birth control and genetic manipulation.
A section on "Homosexuality and Homophobia" says homosexuality stems from an "unresolved psychological conflict."
It says that those who want to give homosexuals the same legal rights in society "deny a psychological problem which makes homosexuality against the social fabric."
The glossary says that heterosexuals in society have been made to feel guilty for even questioning homosexuality.
"Every criticism, every reflection on homosexuality is seen almost as blasphemy, compared to a crime: the crime of homophobia," it said.
Although the stand against homosexuality and gay marriages was not new, observers found the tone more severe.
Italy's gay community was outraged by the glossary, called "Lexicon On Ambiguous and Colloquial Terms about Family Life and Ethical Questions."
"The Vatican has gone from invective to insults," said Franco Grillini, an MP for the largest opposition party, the Democrats of the Left.
Grillini, honorary chairman of Arcigay, Italy's largest gay rights group, told Reuters he believed the Roman Catholic Church in Italy was embarking on "a new anti-gay crusade" which found comfort in Italy's center-right government.
"The Vatican is truly obsessed. There is not a day that goes by that a cardinal or somebody in the hierarchy does not bash gays. They say things that are total lies, falsehoods," he said.
Another section of the glossary says homosexuals have "not stopped proclaiming, often in a disproportionate if not aggressive way, their 'normality.'"
The Lexicon, which also condemned the use of condoms for safe sex, called this "an exercise in self-justification."
It said the fact that leaders of some countries favor gay marriages "shows a profound disorder in the minds of these countries."
The Lexicon was the brainchild of Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, one of the Vatican's hierarchy's most conservative members.
Grillini said the Catholic Church was part of the problem.
"It is precisely because of the Catholic Church's homophobia that homosexuals have difficulties. If the Catholic Church would just stop its campaign of hate against gays, a good part of the problems of gays would be resolved," the gay MP said.