New York's Cardinal Dolan says gay people are 'entitled to friendship' only

America's most high-profile Catholic official, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, has warned that the church needs to "do better" to ensure its "defense of marriage is not reduced to an attack on gay people". But he added that gay people were only entitled to "friendship" not "sexual love".

Asked about gay marriage in a week when the US supreme court heard two cases regarding same sex marriage, the archbishop of New York told ABC's This Week: "We want your happiness. You are entitled to friendship. But we also know that God has told us that the way to happiness, that – especially when it comes to sexual love – that is intended only for a man and woman in marriage, where children can come about naturally."