Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan acknowledged on Easter Sunday that the Catholic Church needs to do a better job of making gay and lesbian Catholics feel more welcome in the Church.
“We gotta do better to see that our defense of marriage is not reduced to an attack on gay people,” Dolan said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And I admit, we haven’t been too good about that. We try our darndest to make sure we’re not anti-anybody.”
Still, Dolan said he believed the church was not likely to change its stance on same-sex marriage.
“Sexual love … is intended only for a man and woman in marriage, where children can come about naturally,” he said.
Dolan admitted that the church should take a more conciliatory approach to gay and lesbian Catholics who may feel estranged from the church, which opposes homosexuality.
“The first thing I’d say to them is, ‘I love you, too, and God loves you, and we want your happiness,’” Dolan said.
The comments from the charismatic cardinal, who helped elect Pope Francis, come a week after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments for and against California’s gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that blocks federal recognition of gay marriages.
