“Transsexuals and homosexuals will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, it’s not me who says it but St. Paul,” said Mexican Cardinal Javier Barragan, a former Vatican official who recently retired, referring to one of St. Paul’s epistles.
Asked if people were born homosexual Barragan, whose comments were posted on a conservative Catholic website called www.pontifex.roma, was quoted as saying:
“One is not born homosexual but they become that way. This is for various reasons: education, for not having developed their identity during their adolescence, maybe they are not guilty but by going against the dignity of the body they certainly will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
“Everything that goes against nature and against the dignity of the body offends God,” he added.
Aurelio Mancuso, president of Italy’s main gay rights group, Arcigay, said Barragan’s remarks were part of the Church’s “ridiculous theories about sexuality and the dignity of the person”.
The Vatican distanced itself from the comments in a statement that was highly unusual because it indirectly criticised a top Church official.
