CATHOLIC Lena Wojdan is a Warsaw-based psychologist who, unlike Iris Robinson’s pet psychiatrist who thinks gays can be “turned around”, believes instead that homosexuality is “a burden from God” which people must learn to accept.

They [homosexuals] need to accept that God created them as they are. This is something that they have been given to bear as a burden. The goal isn’t to change the patient, to shift their orientations, but rather to prepare them to accept their leanings.

To this end, this crucifix-wearing, primitive muppet is engaged in a guilt-inducing programme in Lublin at the secretive Odwaga centre, which was founded in 2007 by the Catholic Church-linked Light-Life Foundation. Journalists are not welcomed there

The aim of the programme is to convince participants they should try to choose between a “sinful” sex-life and a chaste, Christian existence.

Said Wojdan:

This is a kind of suffering which has meaning for Christians, a suffering that they have to face each day. A human being is capable of knowing what’s really important to him or her and thus of overcoming his or her feelings. When you want a sweet, for example, you are completely able to resist the urge.

According to this Yahoo report, Odwaga’s standard programmes are lengthy. For the first year, participants must devote one weekend a month to support-group sessions. And For the following two years, they devote 20 hours a month to group therapy sessions led by psychologists, who are often priests.

When not praying with priests, the “burdened”, if they are male, also kick footballs around and the women are given cooking lessons.

One graduate of the centre, who wishes to remain anonymous, said:

Today I feel free because I no longer need to live out my homosexuality actively. I no longer feel I’m a lesbian and I have even started to discover men.

For gay rights campaigners, the Odwaga programmes, which have been replicated elsewhere in this über-Catholic country where gays are considered sick, deviant or sinners, are an aberration and can even threaten participants’ mental health.

Said Marta Abramowicz, a psychologist who works for the Campaign Against Homophobia, a Polish-based gay rights group.

When a homosexual goes to see these psychologists, he or she is told: ‘You’ll get over it.’ But you don’t ‘get over it’. As a result, the person slides into depression. I’ve even known people who committed suicide.