Gays and Heaven: A Cardinal Clarifies . . . Sort of

The Vatican cardinal whose comments about homosexuals being barred from heaven have sparked quite a furor has said his remarks were misrepresented. Although Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan's clarification doesn't really get him out of the hole he dug on Wednesday, when he told a Rome news outlet that "transsexuals and homosexuals will not enter into the Kingdom of God."

Cardinal Barragan, a Mexican churchman who this year retired as the Vatican's chief spokesman on health care issues, had justified his position by noting that "I do not say this, but Saint Paul does" -- a reference to the first chapter of Paul's Letter to the Romans, when the Apostle says those who rejected God were given over to same-sex relations.

In the original interview, Barragan also got himself into trouble by saying that homosexuality is a choice, not a matter of biology, so homosexuals are responsible for their actions. In a statement sent Thursday to the conservative Catholic news service, ZENIT, the cardinal sought to set the record straight on his earlier remarks:

"This is what the Word of God says, it isn't what I said," Barragan said, referring again to Romans 1:26-27. "Now, I have never said that a particular homosexual cannot be saved, because he can be saved."

"Many times one is not a homosexual through one's own fault; it all depends on one's education and environment. . . . The only thing I can say is that for grave fault to exist, in addition to needing grave matter, one needs full knowledge and full consent: Where one of those three conditions is lacking, there is no grave fault."

Well, that clears things up.