A cardinal of the Catholic Church has spoken out against the LGBTI+ community in a recent interview, blaming the church’s sexual abuse scandal on the “moral depravity” of gay people.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller spoke with right-wing publication LifeSite to address accusations of sexual abuse of boys within the organisation. Müller also addresses the resignation of cardinal Theodore McCarrick in July, after he was accused of abusing young men.

In the interview, Müller says that the “homosexual conduct of clergymen can in no case be tolerated.”

“That McCarrick, together with his clan and a homosexual network, was able to wreak havoc in a mafia-like manner in the Church is connected with the underestimation of the moral depravity of homosexual acts among adults,” Müller said.

“I stressed again and again that also homosexual conduct of clergymen can in no case be tolerated; and that the Church’s sexual morality may not be relativized by the worldly acceptance of homosexuality.”

Müller added that updating the Code of Canon Law in 1983 to remove language that discriminated against LGBTI+ priests was “a disastrous error.”

“Sexual contacts between persons of the same sex completely and directly contradict the sense and purpose of sexuality as grounded in creation.”

“They are the expression of a disordered desire and instinct, just as it is a sign of the broken relationship between man and his creator since the Fall of Man.”

The former doctrine chief also said earlier this month that LGBT identities have “no place” in Catholic Church documents.

“The LGBT ideology is based upon a false anthropology which denied God as the creator.”

“Since it is in principle atheistic or perhaps has only to do with a Christian concept of God at the margins it has no place in Church documents.”