"I get so angry that I get a fever when I read such remarks as that," stormed Wenche Foss, longtime stage and screen star and known as Norway's diva.
"I discussed homosexuality with Kvarme many years ago, when he was still a local pastor," she told newspaper Dagsavisen on Sunday. "I though he had understood. But he clearly hasn't learned a thing."
Foss wasn't the only one who blasted Kvarme, whose appointment last year was controversial precisely because of his conservative views on homosexuality.
Government Minister Trond Giske, in charge of church and cultural affairs, claimed Kvarme's remarks could lead some gays to commit suicide, while Oslo's top local politician called such remarks "religious quakery."
City Council leader Erling Lae, who's gay himself, called it "extremely unfortunate and dumb" of the bishop to lend credence to the controversial theory of "re-orientation." Lae's partner, Jens Torstein Olsen, who's the pastor at Oslo's large Majorstuen Church, said he was offended by Kvarme's remarks.
Dr Morten Selle, who heads the department of psychiatry at Oslo's Diakonhjemmet hospital, told newspaper Aftenposten over the weekend that trying to treat homosexuality is both "indefensible and unethical," and suggested that the bishop shouldn't pull healthcare personnel into the issue.
Kvarme was forced to explain himself on national television over the weekend, and claimed he wasn't suggesting that gays should seek psychiatric counseling. "What I said (before a group advocating more openness within the state church) wasn't meant as advice," he said. "I don't view homosexuality as an illness."
He maintained, however, that some gays want or need need help to clarify their sexuality, and they must be respected as well.
