Gay groups attack Pope's comments

He said humanity needed to listen to the "language of creation" to understand the intended roles of man and woman and that behaviour beyond traditional heterosexual relations was a "destruction of God's work".

He called on the Church to protect man from the "destruction of himself" saying that tropical rainforests deserved protection but man as a creature "does not deserve any less".

His remarks, in an end-of-year address to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration, have prompted claims that his speech could be used to justify homophobic attacks.

The Rev Sharon Ferguson, chief executive of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, described his remarks as "totally irresponsible and unacceptable in any shape or form".

The Rev Dr Giles Fraser, Vicar of Putney and president of Inclusive Church, the pro-gay Anglican movement, said: "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."

Mark Dowd, campaign strategist at Operation Noah, the Christian group campaigning against climate change, who is gay and a former Dominican friar, said the Pope's remarks were "understandable but misguided and unfortunate".

He said he understood the Pope's vision of creation in which rainforests were protected and men and women "complement one another, reproduce and live happily ever after".

But he said: "The problem is that if you study ecology seriously as any intelligent man would do, and the Pope is a fantastically intelligent man, you realise that ecology is complex, it has all sorts of weird interdependencies and it is the same with human sexuality.

"It is not a one size fits all model, there are lots of differences, so therefore I think it is really sad that these comments betray a lack of openness to the complexity of creation."