Telegraph: Gays and transsexuals 'will never go to Heaven', cardinal says

The Roman Catholic Church still regards homosexuality as an “insult to God” and homosexuals and transsexuals will never go to Heaven, a leading cardinal said on Wednesday, prompting a rebuke from the Vatican.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/6711601/Gays--and-transsexuals-will-never-go-to-Heaven-cardinal-says.html

03 Dec 2009 By Nick Squires in Perugia

"Transsexuals and homosexuals will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven and it is not me who says this, but Saint Paul," said Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, 76.

In remarks which outraged gay rights groups, he claimed that people were not born gay, but chose to embrace homosexuality of their own free will.

"People are not born homosexual, they become homosexual, for different reasons: education issues or because they did not develop their own identity during adolescence.

"Perhaps they aren't guilty but by acting against the dignity of the body they will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven," said Cardinal Barragan, who recently retired as head of the Vatican's Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers but still holds influential positions on several Church committees.

He quoted a passage from Paul's epistle to the Romans which speaks of "men committing indecent acts with other men".

"Homosexuality is therefore a sin, but this does not justify any form of discrimination. God alone has the right to judge," the cardinal said. "We on earth cannot condemn, and as human beings we all have the same rights."

But the Vatican distanced itself from the cardinal's comments in a statement that was highly unusual because it indirectly criticised a top Church official.

Father Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said theconservative website on which the cardinal made his comments should not be considered an authority on Catholic thinking “on complex and delicate issues such as homosexuality”.

Father Lombardi quoted from the official Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, which says homosexual acts are a “disorder” but acknowledges that many people have “innate homosexual tendencies” and should be treated with respect and not be subject to discrimination.

The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are sinful but homosexuality in itself is not.

An Italian gay rights group, Arcigay, condemned his comments and put out a statement in which it said: "It's true, we won't ever get into your heaven, which is a murky and unjust place".

It said the cardinal's remarks risked legitimising anti-gay discrimination and even violence. There has been a spate of attacks against gay men in Italy in recent months, from Rome to Milan.