‘Homosexuality against natural law’

He made this disclosure yesterday at a press conference at Archbishop’s House in Port-of-Spain as he responded to statements by priest Fr Stephen Geofroy on Monday night during a consultation on a Draft Report for Constitutional Reform at UWI Sports and Physical Education Centre in St Augustine.

Fr Geofroy said lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs) must not suffer for their rights in favour of a majority. Archbishop Harris said the Church’s position says, “this sexual orientation must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity and every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

However, he was quick to add that same sex marriage is against natural law and anything against natural law can never be right. Fr Geofroy, a UWI lecturer in philosophy, also said people have a “human right to love who they want.” To this, Archbishop Harris said it was “unfortunate” Fr Geofroy made such a comment.

“The term love is a very loaded term. I would hope that as a priest, someone charged with teaching morality and what the church considers to be morality, that what he was talking about is the right to love everyone and anyone. I hope he was not talking about love in the sense of sex because again, the church has said very clearly that homosexual acts are against natural law,” Harris said.

Geofroy, Newsday was told, contacted the Archbishop yesterday and told him he (Geofroy) was not saying anything against church teachings. Asked what would happen if same sex marriages were allowed in this country, Archbishop Harris said, “If a Government decides they were going to make that law, I would object most strenuously. I think all the Christian churches would object very strenuously to same sex marriages becoming law.”

Harris said persons must treat everyone as a brother, a sister or a friend. “The fact that someone may have an orientation different to yours does not make them bad,” Harris said.