Vincent Wijeysingha hits out at Catholic Church statement on LGBT issues

SINGAPORE — Civil activist Vincent Wijeysingha has criticised the Catholic Church’s recent public statement addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, claiming that it is “entirely at odds” with the teachings of the church government at the Vatican.

In Facebook noted published late last night (June 23), Dr Wijeysingha, also said the statement by Archbishop William Goh, which was read out during mass at Catholic churches here over the weekend, was a “cynical attempt to portray the church as a compassionate and empathetic organisation concerned for the souls of LGBT people”, said Dr Wijeysingha, who was the first politician here to come out as gay before he resigned from the Singapore Democratic Party last year to be more involved in LGBT and other human rights issues.

The criticism drew a response from the Catholic Church, which reiterated its “consistent” position that “whilst every individual, regardless of his imperfections, is to be treated with love, compassion and respect, we do not condone any act that is contrary to God’s commandments as taught in scripture and by the teaching authority of the Church”.

Responding to TODAY’s queries, the Archdiocese Communications Office said the Church’s stand on sexuality “should not be distorted”. It added: “The intent of our message is to clarify to the Catholic Faithful its position with regard to the family from the perspective of faith in Christ and His Church, and not to engage in a debate on the issue of LGBT purely on the level of reason, because faith while not opposed to reason, transcends reason.”

In his statement, Father Goh had said the church does not condone LGBT relationships, which are “not in accordance with the plan of God”. However, discrimination of any kind is neither pleasing in the eyes of God nor those of man, he added.

Dr Wijeysingha said the Church “has no authority whatsoever, moral or otherwise, to comment on whom I can and cannot love”, given that the Catholic leadership has “remained silent on the real problems that face our world”.

Citing the child sex abuse scandals in the 1980s, he accused the universal church of being guilty of “systematic rape and abuse of children”.

Dr Wijeysingha revealed that when he was 15 years old, he came into “unfortunate contact with a priest who would engage me in play wrestling and attempt to touch my crotch in the process”. “He once brought me to his bedroom and took a stack of pornographic magazines from his wardrobe to show me,” he added. “I haven’t till now disclosed this sorry incident publicly. It never seemed momentous and so far as I’m aware, it didn’t damage me.”

The Archdiocese Communications Office did not address this allegation in its response to media queries.