CBCP’s Villegas on same-sex unions: ‘A tragic error to humanity’

CBCP president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas has described same-sex unions as "a tragic error to humanity," GMA Cebu has reported.

Villegas, who reportedly also frowned on the use of the term marriage to describe a same-sex union, 

made the remarks at the National Convention on Family and Life in Cebu City.

The convention was attended by representatives from some 68 dioceses nationwide.

The report also said the CBCP is likely to come out with a pastoral letter on the subject of same-sex unions.

 

Last June, the US Supreme Court deemed legal same-sex marriages in all 50 states.

 

In a statement at the time, Villegas said the Church maintains what it has always taught—that marriage is a "permanent union of man and woman, in the complementarity of the sexes and the mutual fulfillment that the union of a man and a woman bring into the loftiness of the matrimonial bond." 
 

"If there is an undeniable difference between man and woman, there is also an undeniable difference between the permanent union of a man and a woman," he added then.

 

"We will continue to teach the sons and daughters of the Church that marriage, transformed by The Lord Jesus and by His Church into a sacrament — a means by which the Risen Lord encounters his people — is an indissoluble bond of man and woman," Villegas said.

 

But he also said the Catholic Church will study the implications of the United States Supreme Court's decision legalizing same-sex unions in all 50 states there.

 

"The US Supreme Court decision will not go unheeded. We shall study it with assiduousness, and revisit our concepts and presuppositions, always with an eye to being faithful to the Gospel and to the mission of the Church," he said.

 

On the other hand, Villegas reassured the Church will not discriminate against members of the LGBT community.

 

"All will continue to find welcome in the Church, while, under command from the Lord himself, will continue to teach what the Church has unceasingly taught," he said. —Joel Locsin/NB, GMA News