LONDON (AFP) — An Anglican priest has apologised over comments made on his blog arguing that gay men should have warnings about sodomy tattooed on their backsides.
Remarks made by Reverend Peter Mullen triggered a furious response from his diocese, which ordered him to remove the "highly offensive" blog post.
"I did not intend to cause any upset but I realise that the remarks were injudicious and I have caused offence. I want to issue an apology," said Mullen, who ministers to parishes in the City of London financial district.
"I did not intend to cause offence when I made some joking remarks about homosexuals. I was not actually meaning to criticise individual homosexual persons, but the promoters of gay culture.
"However, my remarks have caused offence and for this I am sorry and make a full and complete apology."
In his original blog post, the 66-year-old wrote: "Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan: SODOMY CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH and their chins with: FELLATIO KILLS."
Ben Summerskill, chief executive of gay rights group Stonewall, described the comments as "nonsense".
"If I were a vicar at the heart of the City of London, I might be praying about other things at the moment rather than getting hot under the collar about gay sex," he said, referring to the current global economic turmoil.
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