Cardinal-designate Fernando Sebastián of Pamplona
Cardinal-designate Sebastián told Diario Sur:
[Sur] Let us disobey a little the Holy Father, who said that priests should not be speaking of homosexuals, abortion and condoms the whole time. His words on gays in which he affirmed he was nobody to criticize them are already famous. Do you share it?
- The Pope go to great lengths in his gestures of respect and
esteem for all persons, but he does not betray or modify the traditional
Magisterium of the Church. It is one thing to display welcoming and
affection to a homosexual person, and something else to morally justify
the exercise of homosexuality. I can tell one person that has a certain
deficiency that it is what it is, but this does not mean that I stop
caring for him and helping him. I believe that is the position of the
pope, and likewise regarding homosexual marriage or divorces. We will be
on his [the person's] side, but the Church cannot change the moral
demands. Love always demands fidelity and irrevocability. Human love is
what it is, and the Church must defend the truth and the deep
authenticity of man, helping all, those who accomplish it well, and
those who make mistakes or fail.
- [Sur] You mentioned the word deficiency. Do you understand homosexuality as such from a moral point of view?
‘Yes. Many complain and do not tolerate it, but with all respect I
say that homosexuality is a deficient way of manifesting sexuality,
because the latter has a structure and an end, which is that of
procreation. Homosexuality, which cannot reach this and, is faulty. This
is not an outrage for anyone. We have in our body many deficiencies. I
have high blood pressure, should I get upset because others tell me so?
It is a deficiency that I have to correct as well as I can. To identify
in a homosexual [person] a deficiency is not offensive, it is a help,
because many cases of homosexuality can be treated and normalized with
adequate treatment. It is not an offense, it is care. When a person has a
defect, the good friend is the one who tells him so.[Sur] The theme of abortion is now current due to the legal reform that the government wants to accomplish. Does all that is being stirred up regarding this matter alarm you?
- It alarms me that Spanish society has accepted the normalcy of
abortion. It is a distorted debate. The truth of abortion is avoided. It
is not the interruption of the pregnancy, it is the interruption of the
life of an incipient human being who is in his mother’s womb. From
there we can debate if it should be licit or decriminalized. Is a normal
and sensible woman capable of reclaiming the right to end with the life
of the child that she carries within? It has no sense, politically or
anthropologically, to make of abortion a symbol of modernity. It is a
theme more of humanistic than religious reflection.
Protect the Pope comment: Good for Cardinal-designate Fernando Sebastián speaking out clearly about homosexual sex being morally defective, and not making the false assumption that being compassionate towards a person with the homosexual inclination means accepting or justifying the practice of homosexual sex.