At his annual Christmas speech to the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI called
same-sex marriage a “manipulation of nature” to be deplored and an
attack on the “essence of the human creature.”

It was the second time this week that Benedict took aim at marriage
equality:

People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by
their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human
being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something
previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.

The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our
environment is concerned, now becomes man’s fundamental choice where he
himself is concerned.

Benedict has repeatedly condemned same-sex marriage as “defection in
human nature” that bears an “immense human and economic cost.” Most
recently, he used his World Day of Peace message to claim that marriage
equality presents a “serious harm to justice and peace.”

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On the other hand, grown male priests having anal intercourse with
little boys? Not so bad.