Pope Benedict XVI Slams Gay Marriage During Christmas Speech

During his annual Christmas speech this week at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI called same-sex marriage a “manipulation of nature," reports the Associated Press.

Pope Benedict XVI quoted the chief rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, in saying the campaign for gay marriage was an "attack" on the traditional family of a father, mother and children.

Pope Benedict said XVI: "People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves."

"The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man's fundamental choice where he himself is concerned."

"Man and woman as created realities, as the nature of the human being, no longer exist. Man calls his own nature into question. From now on he is merely spirit and will."