Primate: "Homosexuality is like anorexia"
It is not the first time that Léonard courts controversy with his pronouncements on this issue. He was speaking barely a week after he was appointed as the new Belgian Primate, the Archbishop of Brussels-Mechelen.
The fiercely conservative views of the Archbishop regarding euthanasia, abortion and homosexuality were no secret.
In recent days days a series of interviews on radio, TV and in several newspapers he appealed to be given "a chance" or at least "the benefit of the doubt".
A year ago, when he was still the archbishop of Namur, he said that homosexuality was abnormal. He explained that he didn't have a problem with gay and lesbian people, but that he was troubled by their nature which deviated from what sexuality should be according to him: the corporal "separation" of man and women.
"He said it's a disease"
In the RTL-TVi programme "Controverse" Mgr. Léonard tried to explain what he meant by comparing homosexuality to anorexia. He said: "I will make the following comparison. Anorexia is a development that can't be reconciled with appetite, but I would never say that anorexia patients are abnormal."
The Archbishop’s words are interpreted as meaning that homosexuality has little to do with sexuality, but this need not necessarily mean that gays are abnormal."
Mgr. Léonard's pronouncements were attacked by the President of the Freethinkers' Association, who was also on the programme. The President of the Freethinkers' Association said that the Archbishop had insinuated that homosexuality was a disease.