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A 'strike at the biological basis of the difference between the sexes', he said
The Pope. Yet more vitriol against gays.
Pope condemns gay marriage as an 'attack' on creation
Pope Benedict XVI has described the acceptance of gay marriage as an "attack" on "the structure willed by the Creator", just days after Portugal's parliament voted in favour of the gay marriage and shortly before his visit there.
In his traditional January address focussing mainly on environmental issues, the Pope said that creatures, including humans, "can be protected or endangered", and that "One such attack comes from proposals which, in the name of fighting discrimination, strike at the biological basis of the difference between the sexes," AFP reports.
He cited "certain countries in Europe or North and South America", which is assumed to mean the mainly Roman Catholic countries of Portugal, Mexico and Argentina. Mexico City legalised gay marriage last month, and last week, two men became the first homosexual couple to legally marry in Latin America, in the southern Argentine province of Ushuaia.
He also said: "Freedom cannot be absolute. For man, the path to be taken cannot be determined by caprice or wilfulness, but must rather correspond to the structure willed by the Creator."
The Pope's may have delivered his address after Portugal's parliament voted in favour of gay marriage, but it comes before the bill has been subjected to review by committee, a final vote in parliament, and ratification by the President. The pontiff will visit the country in April, shortly after the law is expected to take effect.
