The Pope's "clear" statement on the importance of heterosexual lifestyles will widen the rift with the Archbishop of Canterbury on the issue of homosexuality, senior Anglican conservatives predict.

To the fury of homosexual groups the Pontiff said the defence of heterosexual relationships was as important to humanity as preventing the destruction of rainforests.

In a Christmas address to prelates in the Vatican, the Pope said that the Roman Catholic Church had a duty to "protect man from the destruction of himself". He urged respect for the "nature of the human being as man and woman".

As homosexual groups condemned the Pope, his remarks drew applause from conservative Anglican groups in Britain. They welcomed the "clarity" of the Pope's thinking which they contrasted with Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Dr Williams is battling to prevent a schism in the Anglican Church as many of his own clergy are in openly gay relationships in defiance of church policy.

The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality "a deviation, an irregularity, a wound".

Rev Geoffrey Kirk, a vicar in south London who is general secretary of the traditionalist Forward in Faith organisation, said: "It should not be a surprise that the Pope is a Catholic and makes clear statements supporting Catholic teaching.

"If there is confusion about what he said it is not because he is not clear; it will be because people chose not to listen to what he said. If there is confusion about what Rowan Williams says, it is because he is not clear. We are in such a mess in the Anglican Church, clarity on sexual morality is now impossible."

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