Archbishop Chrysostomos, head of Cyprus' Greek Orthodox Church, has lashed out at homosexuals as Cyprus faces a deadline for complying with a 1993 European Court of Human Rights ruling that the nation must legalize gay sex.

If Cyprus refuses to decriminalize homosexuality, the country likely will be denied entry into the European Union and may be ejected from the Council of Europe.

"If we don't stand firm and tell Europe this does not conform, not only to Christ's religion, but also to the moral standpoint of our nation, eventually they will come and tell us to be homosexuals in order to be accepted into Europe," Chrysostomos was quoted by the Cyprus Mail as saying. "If you go and say it's all right to be a homosexual, you will encourage it, and the place will be full of homosexuals.

"It is a violation both of the laws of the creator God and the laws of nature. God made males and females for the reproduction both of animals and humans. Homosexuality is against the purpose of creation. The Church considers decriminalization to be against what is holy and against human dignity."

The European Union is composed of 15 western European nations working toward unification. Its supreme court is the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The Council of Europe is a grouping of 40 nations pledged to uphold human rights and cooperate in a variety of activities. Its judicial organ is the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. The court enforces the 1952 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

ITALIAN PARTY LEADER ATTACKS GAY TEACHERS

Gianfranco Fini, leader of Italy's main right-wing party, the National Alliance, said April 8 that homosexuals should not be allowed to teach school.

"If you ask me if a declared homosexual can be a teacher, my answer is no," Fini said in a broadcast interview. "I well know that the intelligentsia will rip me to shreds," he added after the broadcast ended, "but I'm deeply convinced of what I said, and I'm sure that 95 percent of Italians think like me."

Education Minister Luigi Berlinguer is among the other five percent. "No limit can be imposed on personal liberty, which is a constitutionally protected right," he responded.

Rex Wockner's weekly international news reports dating back to May 1994 can be searched at http://www.wockner.com. The reports in their original form are archived at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/wockner.html, which also archives Wockner's Quote Unquote column and some of his longer gay-press articles.