BELGIUM: A Belgian cardinal said yesterday only five to 10 per cent of lesbians and gays were actually gay and the rest were "sexual perverts".
"I am willing to write in my own blood that of all those who call themselves lesbian or gay, a maximum of five to 10 per cent are effectively lesbian or gay," Cardinal Gustaaf Joos (80) told the Belgian weekly P-Magazine in an interview.
"All the rest are just sexual perverts," said Cardinal Joos, who is also a parish priest in the small Belgian town of Landskouter.
The Belgian Catholic church reacted to the interview by saying Cardinal Joos was speaking in a private capacity.
"It concerns a private view of Cardinal Joos who doesn't speak on behalf of the Belgian bishops. He is not a member of the Belgian conference of bishops," spokesman Mr Toon Osaer told VRT television. He added that it did not have the power to reprimand Cardinal Joos.
Cardinal Joos later told the same television station: "I'm just speaking out on what thousands of people are thinking but never get a chance to say."
The predominantly Roman Catholic country of 10 million legalised gay marriages last year.
It is now moving closer to granting same-sex couples the right to adopt children.
"Real homosexuals don't wander in the streets in colourful suits.
"Those are people who have a serious problem and have to live with that. And if they make a mistake they will be forgiven. We have to help these people and not judge them," Cardinal Joos said in the interview.
"The Church . . . rejects homosexuality, not the homosexual," said Cardinal Joos.