A Roman Catholic archbishop in Brazil
has likened gay rights to pedophilia, the AP reported.
In urging his followers to reject gay
rights, conservative Archbishop Dadeus Grings warned that accepting
being gay would lead to the acceptance of pedophilia.
“When sexuality is trivialized, it's
clear that this is going to affect all cases,” Grings told the O
Globo newspaper Tuesday at a Brazilian bishops conference.
“Homosexuality is such a case. Before, the homosexual wasn't
spoken of. He was discriminated against.”
“When we begin to say they have
rights, rights to demonstrate publicly, pretty soon, we'll find the
rights of pedophiles.”
Grings, who was appointed the
Archbishop of Porto Alegre by Pope John Paul II in 2001, is a
conservative priest who has made controversial anti-Semitic remarks
in the past. He appeared to be expanding on the comments of Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone, a senior Vatican official, who created a stir last
month when he said that the church's ongoing sex abuse scandals are
linked to being gay and not celibacy among priests.
“Society today is pedophile, that is
the problem,” Grings said. “So , people easily fall into it. And
the fact it is denounced is a good sign.”
Several cases of priests allegedly
abusing children have recently surfaced in the Catholic-stronghold of
Brazil.
Grings, whose ecclesiastical motto is
“The truth will set us free,” also suggested that being gay was
not human and that children are spontaneously gay: “We know that
the adolescent is spontaneously homosexual. Boys play with boys,
girls play with girls. If there is no proper guidance, this sticks.
The question is – how are we going to educate our children to use a
sexuality that is human and suitable?”