Same sex marriage may not be recognised by the Catholic Church – but lesbians can marry gays and vice versa.
So says Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Cruz of the Philippines.
Speaking last week at the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines-National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal, Archbishop Cruz hypothesised: “May a lesbian marry a gay man?
“My answer is ‘yes’ because in that instance the capacity to consummate the union is there. The anatomy is there. The possibility of conception is there.
“I ask myself this question to myself and I have thought about it for a long time and the answer is ‘yes’.”
Salon sums up Archbishop Cruz's comments in this nutshell: "Apparently, in Cruz's mind, 'consummation' is limited strictly to those activities which can result in conception and conception is good enough to call marriage."
However, as The Advocate points out, Archbishop Cruz was careful to clarify the Roman Catholic Church will never recognise same sex unions, no matter what they are called or what numerous federal courts continue to declare about the fundamental nature of the freedom to marry.
He said: “For the Church, even if you turn it upside down and call it by another name, it would still not be marriage. For the Church, even if a hundred [judges] bless a same-sex wedding, it would still not be effective.”
Archbishop Cruz also helpfully explained his own interpretation of homosexuality, claiming: “More often, it’s about psychological problems, meaning there is some kind of mental impairment or emotional disturbance.”
His comments have predictably gone down like the proverbial lead balloon among LGBT communities.
COLORS, a member of a coalition of 23 LGBT groups in the Philippines, has called on him to retract the comments, Gay Star News reports.
With somewhat impeccable timing, the calls came as a fundamentalist Christian ministry that preached a “cure” for gay people announced its closure after its leader admitted he himself had been attracted to men.
Exodus International’s president Alan Chambers penned an open apology to the LGBT community in which he admitted he had “omitted his ongoing same-sex attractions” while ministering to help gay people “overcome” their sexual orientation.
“In light of this apology from Exodus international, Bishop Oscar Cruz should retract his statement suggesting that our sexual orientation and gender identity are a form of mental impairment,” said COLORS president Magdalena Robinson.