Ad in Gays Are Putrid

The main newspaper in El Paso, Texas, published a full-page ad Saturday from a right-wing priest who calls gays "immoral,""putrid," and "depraved."

The paid advertisement in the El Paso Times, titled "True Pastoral Care for Homosexuals," is from Friar Michael Rodriguez of El Paso's San Juan Bautista Catholic Church. The virulently antigay and antichoice Rodriguez first writes about showing compassion for gay people before explaining how gays are destructive sinners.

"Engaging in depraved and unnatural sexual acts will lead directly to the ruin of both the homosexual's body and soul," Rodriguez writes. "Our very anatomy cries out against the lie that homosexual acts are 'ok.'"

Rodriguez closes his screed by saying we live in a "godless society" that condones homosexuality.

"Reflect, first there are (a) individuals committing mortal sins of a homosexual nature; next, evil extends its tentacles to (b) society as a whole accepting homosexual and homosexual activity as 'normal"; and finally, iniquity's victory is all but sealed when (c) laws are enacted which impose the putrid homosexual ideology on everyone, while those who, rightfully resist it, are ridiculed, attacked, and persecuted," Rodriguez writes.

The ad claims that the statements don't reflect the views of the El Paso Times, a newspaper that reaches more than 108,000 people daily. A phone message was left with the newspaper regarding the publication's advertising policies, but as of late Monday the call was not returned.

See the full ad here on page A05. *The full-page view of the ad has now been taken down.