Church criticises Cardinal's analogy for homosexuality

Iglesia critica ejemplo de cardenal sobre homosexuales | País | La Tercera Edición Impresa:

Bishops' Conference spokesman cites the statements of Cardinal Medina in Faces,  in which he referred to the Zamudio case.

Cardinal Jorge Medina, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship who in 2005 was assigned to announce that Joseph Ratzinger was the new Pope Benedict XVI yesterday caused a stir following an interview given to magazine Caras . In this paper, he compares homosexuality to living with an amputated arm.

"You have to help a person to cope with that burden, which I would compare, for example, to a child born without an arm. It is an embarrassment and one must attend to that child so that his limitation does not prevent him from leading a life as normal as possible, "he said.

Medina's statements are produced in an interview with that magazine, which referred to the murder of Daniel Zamudio, who was attacked on March 3 by a gang who, according to the investigation of the prosecutors, attacked because the victim was gay.

Gay groups were outraged by the statements of Medina and they generated a response from the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

Conference spokesman, Jaime Coiro said that "unfortunately, sometimes, by the desire to make clear the mind of the Church on certain matters, the examples used ultimately end up damaging what in reality you want to protect: respect and dignity. "

He added that following the discussion on non-discrimination, the Church has promoted in their parish communities awareness of an approach based on the Gospel.

The statements of Medina were also answered by the spokesman of Homosexual Liberation Movement (MOVILH), Rolando Jiménez: "Medina's hate speech, protected by the Catholic hierarchy, is the breeding ground for violent actions such as those which affected Daniel Zamudio ".

Journalist Juan Carlos Cruz, one of the complainants about former priest Fernando Karadima, condemned by the Vatican for sexual abuse of minors, also addressed the issue.  He argued that the statements  "only demonstrate a reactionary and offensive mentality, which does not contribute to what we expect of our Catholic Church."

Medina had already caused controversy in April 2011, on the subject of the sentence for abuse given to Karadima when he said "the case of an eight or nine year old is very different to one involving  a 17 year old (...). I hardly think that it is an abuse of the same category. "

Cathcon- the last comments has echoes of the Bishop of Bruges who last year said that it was only a bit of fun, as it involved older boys.

The comments on homosexuality echo those of my friend, the late, great Cardinal Joos, who said

he wanted it written down – “in blood” – that the majority of gays and lesbians were “sexual perverts” and gave this advice: “Don’t become gay, you will end up sad.” In all cases, it would have been more constructive to refer to the official teaching documents.