PALO, Leyte, July 21, 2015 -– Reiterating the Catholic stand on same sex attraction, Fr. Chris Arthur Militante, spokesman of the Archdiocese of Palo, stressed that while the local church denounces homosexual acts, people who identify themselves as gay are very much welcome in the Church.
“The archbishop (John Du) and the clergy of the archdiocese are disappointed with the legalization of same sex marriages, but the Church [does] not discriminate our brothers and sisters who look at themselves as members of the third sex, they are still part of the family and they are welcome in the Church,” he said in a recent interview with CBCP News.
“What the church denounces are the acts, which the conscience dictates are transgressions against our Lord,” he said, admitting that everyone, even priests, lay faithful, and religious, like those among the third sex have the inclination to commit sin.
“This is our prayer that all Christians will actively denounce these acts [of] disobedience to the law [of God] that will degrade our morality as family and as Church of Christ,” Militante said.
He emphasized the Church’s protests against the alteration of the meaning of marriage, which from the outset has been between man and woman, as written in Sacred Scriptures and as evident in human nature itself.
According to SVD priest William Lipatan engaging in homosexual acts, which has mere physical satisfaction as its only goal, are in themselves violations of God’s law.
He notes how such acts inspired God’s wrath as seen in the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Eileen Nazareno-Ballesteros/CBCP News)