Prague, July 31 (CTK) – Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka has banned two events organised by the Logos group, associating Christian homosexuals, during the Prague Pride homosexual festival at Prague’s Catholic Academic Parish, priest Tomas Halik who leads the parish announced Friday.
The Logos group planned to organise a discussion meeting with American nun Jeannine Garmick on bullying in church and a screening of a Polish film about a gay Catholic priest.
Halik said the archbishop used his right to ban the events.
Duka considers the connection with Prague Pride festival organised by the LGBT community unfortunate, he said.
“We respect the decision and we will return to a necessary academic discussion and an open dialogue about this issue later, under more favourable circumstances,” said Halik, who won the Templeton Prize in 2014.
Stanislav Kostiha, head of the Prague branch of Logos, said both events would be organised anyway, though not in cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church.
Kostiha said Logos was disappointed that the Church leadership rejected the opportunity for a dialogue within Pride Prague.
The Czech Roman Catholic Church avoids the issues of bullying and discrimination, according to Logos.
Duka said earlier this week that the Church cannot share some of the stances presented by the participants and organisers of the Prague Pride festival.
He said it seemed unfortunate to table the issue of homosexuals in the Church in connection with the so-called pride march because a predominant part of the participants are not believers and they do not intend to solve their relation to the church.
However, Duka did not plan to ban the events originally organised at the Catholic Academic Parish at first. He may have changed his mind during the week in reaction to further protests among church dignitaries and believers.
Halik said previously that he considers the Prague Pride march rather pointless. “I believe that such events make sense in Russia where homosexuals are subjected to persecutions, but hardly in our country where nobody is persecuting them,” he said.
Halik said the Church should fully respect gays and lesbians, but the sacrament of matrimony in the Catholic Church concerns only marriage between a man and a woman.
