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Monday January 14, 2008
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The Full Text of La Opinion de Tenerife's Interview with Bishop Bernardo Álvarez on Homosexuality
Q: What is your opinion of homosexuality?
A: I think that the first thing it is necessary to do is to distinguish the people from the phenomenon. People are always worthy of the greatest respect. If a person, for some physiological reason, chooses this form of life he deserves the greatest respect. It is necessary to be very careful these days because one can't say that someone suffers from homosexuality. It isn't politically correct to say that it is an illness, a lack of something, a deformity of human nature itself. Something that all the dictionaries of psychiatry said ten years ago can't be said today.
It is very clear that, in this sense, my thinking is that of the Church: the greatest respect for people, but logically, I believe that the phenomenon of homosexuality is something that damages people and society. Eventually we will suffer the consequences just as other civilizations have. I don't say that it should be repressed, but there is a middle ground between not repressing it and promoting it. I think that it is necessary to promote education. We should include the values of femininity and masculinity should be inculcated in children. Maybe they'll tell us that these values are retrograde, but we think that these values are respectful of freedom but at the same time they give guidance to people."
Q: It's necessary to give sexual guidance?
A: We cannot leave people free to turn out however they turn out. Why don't we do the same with violence or other impulses that people have? Moreover, only six percent of homosexuals owe their condition to biological issues. We shouldn't confuse homosexuality with the existential necessity of a person, with what is practiced as a vice. The person practices it like one might practice the abuse of minors. He does it because he is attracted by the novelty, a distinct form of sexuality.
Q: The difference between a homosexual relation and an act of abuse is clear.
A: Of course, but why is an abuser of minors sick?
Q: To begin with, the abuse is a relationship that is not consented to.
A: There might be minors who consent to it, and in fact, there are. There are adolescents of thirteen years of age who are minors and are totally in agreement and furthermore desire it. Even if you take care they provoke you. This aspect of sexuality is somewhat more complex than it appears.
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