A day after Maltese lawmakers approved a bill that extends marriage to gay and lesbian couples, the Catholic Church has reiterated its opposition to same-sex marriage.

(Related: Maltese parliament votes to legalize same-sex marriage.)

Charles Scicluna, the archbishop of Malta, on Thursday tweeted that carobs are not oranges.

“'Good morning, Carob,' said the Orange Tree,” the archbishop tweeted. “'Did not the Law say that we are equal? I see that you are still a Carob and I an Orange Tree.'”

While Roman Catholicism is the official state religion of Malta and 88.6% of its citizens identify as Catholic, a majority of Maltese (65% in 2015) support same-sex marriage, despite the church's opposition.

In a statement, the Curia reiterated its opposition.

“This has always been the model of marriage of humanity itself and not merely a Christian vision,” it said. “By introducing the concept of same-sex marriage, the law is doing away with the differences and natural reciprocity between men and women, as well as with the anthropological basis of a family.”

“Instead of accepting diversity, we have now imposed uniformity on the way relationships are expressed.”

Prior to Wednesday's vote, Scicluna had expressed opposition to changing the law.

“They have brought us Christians to a point where we have to declare we disagree with the law of the state,”Scicluna said. “We have nothing against gay. They are human beings who have every right to expect us to respect and love them. However, we do not need to change the way in which God created marriage so that we would be able to say that two men or two women can get married.”

(Related: Rick Santorum opposes gay marriage because trees are not cars.)