Gay Devil Column: Daniel Avila, Boston Bishops' Aide, Resigns

BOSTON -- The author of a newspaper column suggesting the devil may be responsible for homosexuality has resigned from his job with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic bishops said Friday that Daniel Avila (AH'-vee-lah) offered to step down and his resignation was accepted Friday.

Avila's column appeared a week ago in The Pilot, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston. Avila had written that there's evidence suggesting the devil is responsible for same-sex attraction. Gay rights groups and others condemned the column.

The newspaper withdrew the article from its website Wednesday. Avila apologized for any pain the column caused. He said his views did not represent the position of the bishops' conference.

Avila had worked on policy and research for the bishops in Washington.

Comments

[iknowscottyknows]

06:28 PM on 11/14/2011

Two men or two women together is certainly detestable to God.

[NYC123]

08:23 AM on 11/08/2011

The church is so politicized and lost -- they could not even make lemonade out of "a presentation of truth" by one of their own!

[NYC123]

08:18 AM on 11/08/2011

Satan is the ruler of this our earth; a point is stated clearly in Scripture. In Satan's lunacy do we think he's playing a harp in support of God's wishes -- or is Satan, with his marketing expertise to decieve, making sure God's mesage is sufficated and misconstrued? All being done with the perception that he (Satan) does not even exist!

[virpilosus]

05:13 AM on 11/07/2011

LOL...Avila OFFERED to resign? What a joke. The Bishops ought to have publicly DEMANDED his resignation. Of course, even that would have been hypocritical, since despite the embarassment, the RCC does in fact daily operate out of the very mindset represented by Avila in his column.

[Jimcracky]

10:36 PM on 11/06/2011

So the Bishops have chosen their sacrificial lamb to make this go away. Big deal. Avila was only saying what they think is true and someone approved it's being printed after he wrote it. Its obvious he was speaking for the Bishops or it wouldn't have gotten accepted for publication to start with. The hypocrisy stinks so bad skunks are complaining about the odor.

[dennybop]

09:46 PM on 11/06/2011

Why does Avila need to apologize or resign? He was only expressing what he actually believes and what the Catholic Church has taught for centuries. Don't most people know what to expect from Catholic clergy?

[Bill J4321]

01:23 PM on 11/06/2011

Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
--Denis Diderot

[CrankyGal]

02:11 PM on 11/06/2011

One of my all time favorite quotes.

[DevonTexas]

12:55 PM on 11/06/2011

"Avila had written that there's evidence suggesting the devil is responsible for same-sex attraction."

Weird. I thought "god" was omnipotent. Why does it allow a "devil" to practice such things and make straight people gay? LOL

[kimsason]

05:33 AM on 11/14/2011

Homosexuality is a fleshly thing and a preference. You can choose but if you choose to do this ,there are consequences with it.

[Stephen G Ford]

06:15 AM on 11/06/2011

THAT'S RIGHT... and the DEVIL was responsible for the RESTARAUNT not putting enough KETCHUP on my HAMBURGER!!! That MONSTER!!!

[DevonTexas]

12:55 PM on 11/06/2011

Again?

[rudewaitress]

11:05 PM on 11/05/2011

Does Daniel know that bigotry was one of the Devil's first successes?

[ahearst4]

09:57 PM on 11/05/2011

RELIGION IS LIKE A PENIS.

Its fine to have one. It's fine to be proud of it. But please don't whip it out in public and start waving it around. I might be gay but please don't try to shove it down my throat.

[kimsason]

05:38 AM on 11/14/2011

You speak of perversion and try to link it with God ...God has no sin but people will always sin and if one person on this earth besides Jesus says they have not sinned ,they are a liar. And what you shove down your own throat maybe your own perversion.

[ahearst4]

10:17 AM on 11/14/2011

Well of course your God never sin. He is perfect. He is your imaginary friend and in a world of fantasy we can always create perfection and attribute him with all the most wonderful qualiities .There are no rules in our fantasy world.I played this same game 15 years ago as a 5 year old kid, I had a make believe friend and talked to him even. Does this imaninary friend exists? What do you think? But that's the make believe world of a 5 year old kid. For an adult to still indulge in this imagainary ,make believe world,believing in sky god, flying angels etc,well I just have a simple words to say to you,,GROW UP.
Please say something intelligent in the future will you. This is a forum for matured people who live in a real world , not a fantasy world. I bet you still believe Santa Claus is real too arent you? I believe there's a giant celestial flying tea cup circling the universe , havent you seen one.?

[Grada3784]

09:55 PM on 11/05/2011

Someone should clue these characters that just saying I'm sorry does not repair the damage they do. Not even close.

[dennybop]

09:48 PM on 11/06/2011

Especially when they're only "sorry" after being called out.

[Sharonnah59]

09:22 PM on 11/05/2011

“If you can be made to believe an absurdity, you can be made to commit an atrocity.”

[rambot02]

09:59 PM on 11/05/2011

Great observation, but give credit where it is due. The quote is from Voltaire.

=^. .^=

[iknowscottyknows]

06:25 PM on 11/14/2011

The wars of the last century begun by followers of Darwin attest to that quote.

[SabeWhat]

08:25 PM on 11/05/2011

His associations gave him the freedom to publish his thoughts.

[shanefox]

08:17 PM on 11/05/2011

It's amazing that religious people still are not aware that one's eye and skin color, hair, straight or curvy, and especially sexual organs, behavior and orientation occurs BEFORE BIRTH, in utero!

Do hermaphodites (born with both sexual characteristics) CHOOSE to be so endowed AFTER the are born? Have these holier-than-though people moved into the 21st century?

Besides they do worship YHWH and his son, the Jew Yeschu.

Have a nice day...

[Asmondius]

06:47 AM on 11/06/2011

Nice try - as of today, there is no known biological reason for homosexuality. 'Orientation' is not akin to skin color, etc.. 'Behavior' is known to be affected by many factors after birth.

And you accuse religious people of believing in myths.

[lacrosselamore]

07:57 AM on 11/06/2011

Sexual orientation is not "behavior", it is a fixed, permanent trait akin to skin color ect., that according to experts in human sexuality, pshchology, psychiatry and sociology. People who have devoted their intellectual carrers to the study of human sexuality all disagree that sexual orientation is a "choice" or a "behavior"
Unless you are willing to concede that your heterosexual relationship is nothing but a "behavior" you could change OR you would agree to give up for the arbitrary reason that it may offend someone, somewhere, you have no point.

[Madim]

07:58 AM on 11/06/2011

So what we don't know or don't understand doesn't exist ? Nice philosophy. Erasing more than half the world. your god included. Nobody's seen him/her, so, according to your statement, there is none.
There is no evidence, either, of homosexuality being an "acquired taste". There is, however, strong evidence against it.

[jrgiancola]

08:05 AM on 11/06/2011

I agree with you that sexual orientation is not chosen. But do not blame God. Blame those who have taken His Word, twisted it, and used it to hate gays and so many other groups. This has been going on since the Inquisitions. The Mosaic prohibitions on homosexuality do NOT apply to Christians; Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic law and Paul in Galatians says it is obselete and non-binding on Christians. The evangelicals seem to have avoided reading Galatians. Paul's exhortations against homosexuality relate to the ancient Romans who,, although they were heterosexual, indulged their sexual passions with male prostitutes. Nothing in the New Testament deals with the true homosexual, the one who is born this way. If you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you will discover that God is YOUR FATHER, He loves you for who you are, His love is more than you can ever imagine>