It is to Laugh…

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Jul 01, 2010

Januário Torgal Ferreira is the bishop for the Armed Forces of Portugal. According to LifeSiteNews.com, the good bishop recently gave an interview in which he opined the following:

• On same-sex marriage: “I do not agree with the notion of marriage. I do agree with and accept a man who lives with a man, and a woman who lives with a woman.”
• On the Church’s condemnation of homosexual acts: “It is certain that a homosexual couple is not theoretical, isn’t it? And affections are translated through this practice, through this psycho-affective fusion of mysterious unity that is the human being.”
• On those who are uncomfortable with nudity on public beaches: Such people are “perfectly illiterate, filled with guilt, malice, sensuality, almost castrated.”
• On those who question his going to such beaches: “What is the problem? I am a citizen like everyone else! But people see me on the beach. Let us imagine the following situation: ‘So, you were there lying down, next to a topless lady?’ And then? What is the matter? Only a pervert goes to the beach and thinks about these things. Malice is often in the way one faces the world.”

All this is funny enough, in its way, but the philosophical pièce de résistance comes in his response to criticism by Church authority:

• For his views on family planning: “I do not accept the dogmatism of natural methods.”
• And why? “People often do not wish to be realistic.”

Who is this man? Laurel and Hardy and Abbot and Costello, all rolled into one jolly package? Ah, but the last point he’s got right. Unfortunately, as any bishops should know, the consequences of aiding and abetting the human desire to be unrealistic are not funny at all.