An article written by Paul Scalia – a Catholic priest, ‘ex-gay’ group chair, and son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia – has emerged in which he denies that it is possible for a person to have a sexual orientation other than towards “the one-flesh union of marriage”.

The 2012 article was recently promoted in the run-up to the annual summit of Courage – the Catholic group Mr Scalia chairs. Courage encourages gay and bisexual people to attend sports camps in order to overcome attractions to the same sex.

Mr Scalia wrote in praise of Courage founder Father John Harvey, commending him for no longer using the term “homosexual”, as he argues that people cannot have same-sex sexual orientation.

Instead, he promotes the idea that people only experience same-sex attractions which can be overcome.

Mr Scalia wrote that “homosexual tendencies… do not constitute a fixed, unchangeable aspect of the person and therefore should not be considered an “orientation.'”

He added: “Either our sexuality is oriented in a certain direction (i.e. toward the one-flesh union of marriage), or it is not. We cannot speak of more than one sexual ‘orientation’ any more than we can think of the sun rising in more than one place (i.e. the orient).”

The article is particularly relevant as Mr Scalia’s father, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, was one of four conservative Justices who attempted to block the Court’s pro-equality decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8.

Justice Scalia also attempted to prevent the Supreme Court ruling on equal marriage a week before their decision.

He said the court should not be ruling on “moral issues”, where there is no “scientifically demonstrable right answer.”