Catholics in the Philippines ordered to condemn equal marriage

The Catholic Church of the Philippines has told the nation’s many Catholics to completely avoid anything vaguely resembling support of same-sex marriage.

Socrates Villegas – the Archbisop of Lingayan-Dagupan and the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines – insisted yesterday (August 30) that any relationship between two people of the same gender “can never be a marriage”.

He urged families and friends of LGBTQs to love them unconditionally but not support or endorse their “lifestyle” in any way.

“Catholics cannot participate in any way or even attend religious or legal ceremonies that celebrate and legitimize homosexual unions,” he said (via Sun Star Manila), arguing that same-sex relationships “are not able to contribute in a proper way to the procreation and survival of the human race.”

He went on: “Families with members who struggle with homosexuality are called to love them unconditionally, thereby outlasting all their other same-sex loves.

“This love, however, must be a love in truth that avoids praising, consenting to, or defending the so-called homosexual lifestyle.”

The country’s Supreme Court is set to address a petition to legalise non-heterosexual unions in the near future.