Catholic priests in Philippines defend Pacquaio's anti-gay remarks

 

 

Pacquiao has come under fire in the Philippines and abroad for saying that "homosexuals are worse than animals." The statement has cost him some advertising endorsements and complicated his run for the nation's Senate.

 

The boxer has since apologised.

 

A Catholic priest in Manila, Father Jojo Zerrudo, speaking during Sunday Mass, said Pacquaio was only expressing teachings found in the Bible.

 

Zerrudo quoted one of the Mass' readings, which contains the line: "Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their shame."

 

He said that alludes to the way God places the brain above the heart, the stomach and the sex organ, so that wisdom would reign over feelings, hunger and passion.

 

Pacquiao earlier this month posted on his Instagram account a Bible quote reading: "If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."

 

Catholic priest Father Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the Catholic bishops' public affairs office, said on DZMM radio that it was unfair to condemn Pacquaio for quoting a Bible passage.

 

"This is really in the Bible. There is this quote he uses from the Bible and we cannot change that," the priest said.

 

But he said that Pacquiao should respect homosexuals and not judge and condemn them.

 

Pacquiao, 37, converted from Catholicism to an evangelical Protestant faith in recent years. Pacquaio, a congressman, is running for senator in the May national election.

 

Secillano said the church is against same-sex marriage, but does not condemn homosexuals.

- DPA