THE BISHOP OF Elphin, Kevin Doran, has said he does not believe gay parents are parents.
In an interview with Newstalk Breakfast this morning, the bishop was asked a number of questions about same-sex marriage. Though he said he was not “into judging the emotional bond” between people, he said the purposes of relationships between heterosexual and same sex couples were different.
One is directed towards the upbringing and care of children and the other isn’t, according to Doran.
When it was put to him by presenter Chris Donohoe that gay and lesbian couples in Ireland are already parents, he responded: “But they’re not parents.”
They might have children but, that’s the point, people who have children are not necessarily parents.
“It’s not about saying gay people are unable to love, it’s about saying children need a mother and a father,” he later said.
People listening in were not happy about his comments:
The bishop also compared being gay to being born with Down syndrome when it was suggested that it could be as God intended.
“That would be to suggest that if some people who are born with Down syndrome or Spina Bifida, that that was what god intended either. I mean I think the thing about it is, I can’t see into the mind of God…”
Asked about his views on a woman having an abortion after she has been raped, Doran said: “The child is still a human being, you don’t destroy a human life in order to get back at the mother’s rapist.”
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