Pope Benedict XVI was accused of stoking homophobia after a speech in which he declared that saving humanity from homosexuality was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction. He declared that defending God's creation was not limited to saving the environment, but also about protecting man from self-destruction.

There are still so many instances of people being killed around the world, including in western society, purely and simply because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity. When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way because they feel that they are doing God's work in ridding the world of these people. — Rev Sharon Ferguson, chief executive of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement

The Pontiff made the remarks in an end-of-year address to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration. He said that humanity needed to listen to the “language of creation” to understand the intended roles of man and woman and behavior beyond traditional heterosexual relations was a “destruction of God’s work”. Pope Benedict XVI claimed that gender theory blurred the distinction between male and female and could thus lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race. Gender theory explores sexual orientation, the roles assigned by society to individuals according to their gender, and how people perceive their biological identity. Gay and transsexual groups promote it as a key to understanding and tolerance, but the Pope disagreed. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said: "In a season in which the immorality of genocide, lawless governments, lust for money and power and the destabilization of the world's economy are destroying the lives of hundreds of millions around the world, the Pope's obsessive focus on gay, lesbian and trans people who simply seek the right to live and love is out of touch with what humanity needs right now from its religious leaders."

I thought the Christmas angels said 'Fear not'. Instead, the Pope is spreading fear that gay people somehow threaten the planet. And that's just absurd. As always, this sort of religious homophobia will be an alibi for all those who would do gay people harm. Can't he think of something better to say at Christmas? — Rev Dr Giles Fraser, president of Inclusive Church

Hard on the heels of lifting an excommunication from a schismatic bishop who denies that the Nazi Holocaust occurred, Pope Benedict XVI appointed as auxiliary Bishop of Linz in Austria another ultra-conservative prelate who described Hurricane Katrina as God's punishment for sin and sexual excess in New Orleans.

The stream of poisonous intolerance – indeed hatred – that Ratzinger constantly pours on the heads of certain human beings is deeply disturbing. He certainly seems to have learned some lessons well whilst in the Hitler Youth. — Henuttawy, Guardian Online

As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope said homosexual inclination was not a sin, but it represented a "more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil". The Vatican has attacked France for proposing a UN declaration "decriminalizing" homosexuality. It said the Vatican accepted that private sexual acts between consenting adults should not be punished by law as crimes. But the real purpose of the UN move was to put homosexual relations on the same level as heterosexual relations and thus open the way to the legitimization of gay marriage and gay adoption.

The pope's pronouncement on gender needs to be seen for what it is: part of a marketing strategy designed to maximise the number of converts and adherents in Asia and Africa, all socially conservative areas. By positioning his church as socially conservative, it will be in a good position to become leader in the market for spirituality, in competition with the conservative evangelical churches. Even discounting the liberals who leave, the growth of adherents in socially conservative developing world countries will increase the Catholic church's overall market share. — Jeremy Ross, Guardian Online

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