Members of the LGBTI community, progressive Catholics and others have called on the Vatican to consider serious reforms so that the Catholic Church may better reflect modern values following Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement this week that he would retire at the end of this month due to poor health.

A group prevented from taking part in the Mardi Gras Parade have spoken out against Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG), questioning whether the current event carries the “integrity” and “purpose” of the original march.

The leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict, was denounced as a homophobe over the weekend as a group of feminist activists held a topless protest for gay rights in the Vatican over the weekend.

Though many continue to debate the true meaning of Christmas, it seems Pope Benedict believes that it may involve large doses of homophobia and anti-gay bigotry with the worldwide leader of the Catholic Church claiming in a recent speech that LGBTI people are destroying the very “essence of the human creature”.

The Catholic Church in England over the weekend upped its opposition to the British Government’s plans to legalise same-sex marriage, with a letter from the church’s two most senior archbishops urging Catholics to fulfil their duty to ensure the “true meaning of marriage is not lost for future generations”.

Pope Benedict has labelled gay marriage a threat to “the future of humanity itself” during an annual address to the Vatican diplomatic corps on Monday, while at the same time calling for an end to discrimination faced by Christians which “frequently relegate them to being second-class spectators of national life”.