MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles ®) – It was just a matter of time. The Philippines’ bid to become the 51st state of the U.S.A. was just weeks away from being approved by the United States Congress.  But  in just the last 24 hours, the hope all but went away, thanks to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage, the Catholic Church in the Philippines says it will maintain its teachings on marriage which is exclusively between a man and a woman.

CBCP head and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas issued an official statement today, reiterating the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage, while reassuring the LGBT community there will be no discrimination against them by the Church.

“The Church continues to maintain what it has always taught. Marriage is a permanent union of man and woman, in the complementarity of the sexes and the mutual fulfillment that the union of a man and a woman bring into the loftiness of the matrimonial bond. If there is an undeniable difference between man and woman, there is also an undeniable difference between the permanent union of a man and a woman,” Villegas said in a post on his Facebook account.

Upon hearing of the CBCP’s  stand on gay marriage, the U.S. Congress killed a bi-partisan resolution granting the Philippines statehood status.

“The Philippines cannot be  a state of the union if it does not intend to abide by the law of the land,” Speaker John Boehner said. “Same-sex marriage is now the law in America, and no existing or potential U.S. state can get around it,” he added.