Pope John Paul II today restated the Catholic Church's official opposition to homosexual marriages, saying they were not natural.
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The 80-year-old Pope made his comments in an address on the theme of marriage to a Vatican tribunal that reviews annulment requests.
"The natural consideration of marriage shows us that a couple unite themselves precisely because they are persons of different sexuality, with all the spiritual richness that this diversity has at a human level," he said.
He said only heterosexual unions were natural - in part because marriage had to be open to the possibility of procreation.
The Vatican has in the past strongly attacked moves in Europe and elsewhere to allow homosexual marriages and to permit gay couples to have the same rights as heterosexual married couples.
The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual tendencies are not sinful but homosexual acts are.
Reuters