The Vatican denounced feminism Saturday, saying it tries to blur differences between men and women

The Vatican denounced feminism Saturday, saying it tries to blur differences between men and women and threatens the institution of the family based on a mother and a father. The drive for equality, the Vatican said, makes “homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a new model of polymorphous sexuality.” The concerns, raised in a 37-page document written by one of Pope John Paul II’s closest aides, broke no new ground, maintaining the Church’s ban on women priests, for example. But some observers said they feared how the document might be used. Professor Paul Lakeland, an expert on the Catholic Church at Fairfield University in Connecticut, said the paper “could unfortunately be used by church conservatives to condemn any form of advocacy for women.” The pamphlet by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican’s orthodoxy watchdog, was published during a Vatican campaign to protect what it terms the Christian family.