Philippine churches that allow cross-dressing homosexuals to play female saints in religious festivals are insulting the Virgin Mary and must be punished, the nation's top cleric warned Monday."We should keep sacred what is sacred," Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales said as he attacked parishes for allowing male homosexuals to play Saint Helena and other female roles traditionally acted out by local beauty queens.
The colourful processions are a major tourist draw in the strongly Roman Catholic Philippines and are a highlight of the calendar in May.
"The procession is religious. (But) what the (parishes) do is organise a parade," Rosales said on Manila's Catholic Radio Veritas station. "That's an insult to the Blessed Mother."
Rosales said he had taken the leaders of one parish to task for having gay cross-dressers participate in these processions.
"I told them that's not right because that's a procession. You are destroying the purity of the devotion," he added.
The Church will ban the holding of masses at any parish that disregards the warning, he added.
Rosales stressed he was not discriminating against homosexuals but only wanted to preserve the solemnity of the processions.
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