SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A Roman Catholic bishop who co-authored a statement opposing same-sex unions, approved by U.S. bishops last week, said Monday legal gay marriages would be “another diminishing of society, just like abortion.”

But Bishop J. Kevin Boland of the Diocese of Savannah insisted the document, to be distributed to Catholic churches in pamphlet form, was not intended to condemn homosexuals.

“We respect their dignity as persons,” Boland said at a news conference. “We know that, with some individuals, it’s not their choice to be gay. But at the same time a gay person, just like a heterosexual person, may be obliged to chastity.”

At their annual meeting in Washington last week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a four-page statement explaining why Catholics should oppose legal recognition of same-sex unions. As chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Marriage and Family, Boland was one of the document’s authors and sponsored it before the full conference.

The bishops’ statement, approved by a 234-3 vote last Wednesday, comes as Congress considers a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Vermont allows civil unions between gays, and laws in California and Hawaii extend some economic benefits to same-sex couples. Last summer, gay rights groups scored a major victory when the Supreme Court struck down bans on gay sex.

“Marriage is, in many ways, in a crisis in this country,” Boland said. “...I see it as another diminishing of society, just like abortion.”

An interfaith gay advocacy group, Soulforce, has called the document “confusing, harmful and spiritually violent.”

“Sending that pamphlet to every single parish in the Catholic Church hurts gay people,” said Laura Montgomery Rutt, a Soulforce spokeswoman. “It’s spiritual violence saying, ‘You’re not as good as us.’ They can say they’re not condemning gay people, but they certainly are.”

The bishops’ statement says a same-sex union contradicts the purpose of marriage because “it is not based on the natural complementarity of male and female; it cannot cooperate with God to create new life; and the natural purpose of sexual union cannot be achieved by a same-sex union.”

And though Boland said the pamphlet is intended as an educational tool, not a policy statement, it argues against government granting same-sex couples the same economic and social benefits as married people.

The pamphlet also urges Catholics to vote their religious convictions, saying, “Participation in the political process is a moral obligation.”

“This is particularly urgent in light of the need to defend marriage and to oppose the legalization of same-sex unions as marriages,” the statement says.

Rutt said the Catholic Church, like any religious denomination, can decide for itself what marriages it wants to recognized.

“The problem is when they want their religion codified into law,” she said. “They’re mixing politics and religion in a way that we believe is wrong.”