Cardinal compares same-sex partners to cats, dogs

A prominent Mexican cardinal denounced legalization of same-sex weddings in an interview published Tuesday, saying it would be like considering cats or cockroaches part of a family. Javier Lozano Barragan complained that defenders of gay marriage argue that people living together constitute a family, according to the Mexico City newspaper Reforma. "They even give cockroaches the rank of family now because they live under the same roof," Lozano was quoted as saying. "If there's a cat, a dog, two lesbians and everything living there, it's a family." Lozano, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, was complaining about a proposal by Spain's government to legalize same-sex marriages. "One of the great goals of the culture of death is destruction of the family," Lozano said, "so on all sides, not merely in Spain...there are these proposals that say that the family consists of all those who live beneath the same roof." Lozano was participating in the 48th International Eucharistic Congress, which has drawn thousands of Catholics to Guadalajara, Mexico. As the congress began this week, bishops called for renewed efforts to halt the loss of members, and they denounced uncontrolled capitalism.