Madrid, Spain, Nov 12, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Tarazona said this week persons do not determine their own sex, despite what Congress says, because in the beginning, “God created man, male and female He created them.”

In a letter entitled, “God Loves Homosexuals Too,” the bishop responded to a new law approved by the Justice Committee of the Spanish Congress, which would allow people to change their names or their sex on their national identity cards, without having undergone a surgical procedure or legal process.

Bishop Fernandez warned that the law “is against the truth of man” and is of no help to persons with homosexual tendencies.  In addition, he said, “It sows confusion in the social environment in which we live.”

The bishop noted that God “does not have contempt for any of his creatures” and He loves homosexuals “because they are persons, created by God for his glory.” 

“There are no first-class and second-class persons.  Much less throw-away persons,” he stressed.

Nevertheless, he explained that because of original sin, “all of natural creation” has been distorted.  “Beginning with original sin, all of nature suffered a distortion, an unbalance that affects us all.  And within that nature, man is born wounded by sin.  Man created in the image and likeness of God knows that this image is disfigured, distorted,” he said.

Bishop Fernandez also stressed that “one does not choose one’s sex, no matter what Congress says.  Whatever a person’s inclination may be, you should accept yourself as you are and live out your sexuality in a climate of chastity, which teaches you to love freely.  Human sexuality is also damaged because of sin, and it must be redeemed through an ever-growing love, which all men can attain with the grace of God.”

Likewise, he explained that love “is not necessarily expressed through the exercise of sexuality,” and he said that although the world is “super-eroticized,” “the redemption of Christ is abundant grace for living chastity with freedom, in the personal situation in which each one of us finds ourselves.”

Bishop Fernandez emphasized that for young people today, these kinds of laws make it “more difficult to live according to the plan of God.” 

“For this reason, we must seek out the light where it can be found, in the risen Christ, the New Man, for these issues of sexuality as well, that are of such concern to people,” he said.