WASHINGTON, DC, January 27, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US Catholic bishop from Illinois who held a public exorcism on the same day the state governor signed into effect a controversial same-sex 'marriage' bill has defended his actions as the “loving” thing to do.

“You really have to understand what love is all about. Love is really to seek the best for people. By being opposed to the redefinition of marriage, and being opposed to things that are sinful, that’s actually a very loving thing,” Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Springfield Diocese told LifeSiteNews.com in a video interview during the March for Life in Washington, DC.

It was in November that Paprocki held the rare public exorcism, an event that he defended as a prayer to God to cast out the influences of evil in the state.

The service, held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, was called “Prayers of Supplication and Exorcism in Reparation for the Sin of Same-Sex Marriage.” During an announcement of the event, Paprocki called gay 'marriage' a tool of the devil designed to confuse and destroy families

Paprocki said that the prayer of “minor exorcism” — the same prayer that is said during Baptism — is used when the Church is under persecution or some opposition.

“And certainly the redefinition of marriage is very much in opposition to God’s plan for married life,” he said.

Paprocki told LifeSiteNews that people in today’s permissive society seem to think that hate is associated with not letting people get “what they want.”

“Any good parent will tell you that sometimes you have to discipline your children. Sometimes you have to say ‘no’. Sometimes you even have to punish.”

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“When a parent does those things, they’re not being hateful towards their children, they’re actually being very loving by correcting them and showing them the right way to do things,” he said.

Paprocki said that not only faithful Catholics in his diocese, but also faithful people of other denominations have offered him their support for the stand he has made. His most vehement opposition has come form the “secular media” and from politicians who “have an agenda to push,” he said.

Paprocki said that he has taken his lead on homosexual marriage from Pope Francis, who as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in Argentina called homosexual ‘marriage’ a “machination of the Father of Lies.”

“That’s a phrase right out of the Gospel of St. John where Jesus calls the devil — Satan — the Father of Lies,” he said.

“We just have to understand that we are going to be facing a lot of opposition and as I said, my whole point for doing the prayer service is realizing it’s the work of the devil that’s behind this.”

Paprocki said that the media helps perpetuate the lies that surround homosexuality with “dishonest” reporting.

“The whole idea of ‘two people who love each other should be able to get married’ even if they’re of the same sex,’ well that’s basically a lie. It’s an untruth in terms of the reality of marriage and what marriage is all about.”

“People can love each other, and hopefully people of the same sex do love each other — there’s nothing wrong with that — but that’s not marriage, it doesn’t have to be marriage, it shouldn’t be marriage.”

“We are facing a lot of untruths out there. We just have to be persistent and courageous in standing up for the truth,” he said.