Homosexuality an 'epidemic'

2005-01-08 20:51

Madrid - Spain's government may be bent on delivering legislation to allow marriages between same-sex couples, but Roman Catholic Church opposition hardened on Saturday with an archbishop labelling homosexuality an "epidemic."

"(There is) a veritable epidemic of homosexuality, a fount of psychological problems and painful frustrations," said Fernando Sebastian, archbishop of Pamplona in northern Spain and secretary of the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

"Homosexuals, if they wish, and with well-targeted help, can change their situation," he said, but added, "For me all are sons of God and all deserve the same respect."

Sebastian said it was justifiable for the state to regulate "some aspects and some consequences" arising from gay cohabitation but warned he was opposed to changing legislation on the definition of marriage, which the Church regards as a sacred partnership between a man and a woman.

He hit out at the "stubbornness" of the Socialist government which took office in April and which last month unveiled plans to modify 14 articles of the 1889 Civil Code to afford gay and lesbian couples the same rights and bind them by the same duties as traditional married couples.

The text was agreed at a weekly cabinet meeting as Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced his wish "to satisfy the palpable reality" of a Spanish society in which some four million people are homosexual.

A majority of the Spanish electorate, Zapatero said, want to "do away with historical discrimination" against homosexuals but Spain's bishops dubbed the move "erroneous and unjust," as well as an "arbitrary use of power."

Assuming the text is passed into law gays and lesbians will be able to wed from early next year as is already the case, in Europe, in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Several other European states allow "registered partnerships."

- AFP