The centre-left opposition on Monday slammed the Vatican's decision to oppose a French proposal which would see the United Nations approve a declaration to decriminalize homosexuality in the world.
Democratic Party MP Paola Concia, a veteran campaigner for gay and lesbian rights, said the Vatican's stance was ''unacceptable''.
The Vatican's representative to the UN, Monsignor Celestino Migliore,told the French news agency I.media earlier on Monday that the Church was against the French proposal, which will be presented to the UN General Assembly on December 10.
Migliore said the Church has always been against any move which would single out homosexuals and cause further discrimination.
According to Migliore, ''this sort of political declaration... would demand that nations and international bodies monitoring human rights abuses make an addition to the list of categories protected by anti-discriminatory legislation. Once adopted though, this would create new and implacable discriminations.
''For instance, nations that do not recognise same-sex marriages would be shamed and be subjected to pressures,'' Migliore said.
Concia dismissed Migliore's arguments as ''false'', saying that if the Church is against discrimination it should back the French proposal.
''Decriminalising homosexuality means preventing some nations from sentencing them to death or imprisonment,'' she said.
The leader of the Communist Refoundation Party Paolo Ferrero, a former minister, said the Church was trying to impose its ''diktat'' on the international community.
''People's rights, whether gay or heterosexual, are unalienable,'' he added.
The leader of lesbian rights movement ArciLesbica Cristina Gramolini, weighed in on the debate, accusing the Church of somehow being in favour of capital punishment.
''The Vatican wants the UN to allow those states who torture or kill homosexuals to continue doing so,'' she said.
''Decriminalising means abolishing the crime of homosexuality, not allowing same-sex marriages. Yet, according to the Vatican, banning punishment, imprisonment and even the death penalty is wrong''.
''This time the Vatican has really gone too far,'' said Arcigay president Aurelio Mancuso.
''Thanks to the particular status the Medieval Vatican state enjoys at the UN and by allying itself with dictatorial regimes including Islamic ones, the clerical lobby is putting pressure on nations so that civil rights and liberties are not acknowledged''.
Mancuso said the Catholic Church's decision to oppose the proposal was an ''extremely serious'' move which amounted to ''a sort of real death sentence against the millions of gays and lesbians who unfortunately live in bloodthirsty countries''.
At least 91 countries ban gays and many others approve torture and imprisonment, said Mancuso, recalling that 10 Islamic-led nations foresee the death penalty.
Arcigay and a number of other Italian pro-gay activist groups will decide over the next few days what protest actions to take against the ''reactionary Catholic hieararchy'', he said.
Lesbian activitist Imma Battaglia said one of the proposals being weighed was a sit-in or other protest action at the Vatican.
France said that it was presenting the resolution - as part of a wider campaign to promote the declaration of the universal rights of man - while holding the European Union duty presidency, which expires on December 31.
Mancuso stressed that Italy backs the French proposal.
