VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has disassociated itself from a Mexican cardinal’s assertion gay and transgender people have no chance of going to heaven.

“Transsexuals and homosexuals will never enter the kingdom of heaven and it is not me who says this, but Saint Paul,” Mexican Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan was quoted as saying by Italian media.

The former head of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers added that “people are not born homosexual, they become homosexual for various reasons — because of educational reasons or because they did not develop their own identity in adolescence.

“It may not be their fault, but by acting against the dignity of the human body they will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Everything that consists in going against nature and the dignity of the body offends God.”

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi quickly stepped in to stop the controversy escalating.

Lombardi told reporters that Pontifex Roma, the conservative Catholic Web site that first published Barragan’s comments, “should not be considered an authority on Catholic thinking, especially on complex and delicate issues such as homosexuality.”

Lombardi added that, while the church disapproved of homosexual acts, it accepted that some people have “innate homosexual tendencies” and they should be treated with respect.

Barragan’s comments produced a swift and angry reaction from gay rights groups.

“It’s true. Free and aware homosexual men and women and transsexuals will never enter your kingdom of heaven, which is a dark, unjust place where only those who share your delirium go,” said Aurelio Mancuso, the head of the Arcigay, Italy’s largest gay-rights organization.