This blog post will focus on homosexuality and the Catholic Church. There are certain stigmas attached with putting those two things in the same sentence, and I only hope to offer what the Catholic Church teaches about homosexuality in brief.
All I ask is that you read this with an open mind.
First of all, let me offer my motivations. In the past few months, my high school made the local news because a Facebook group was created to "Abolish the Gay-Straight Alliance Club!" [1] From what I've heard from my friends that are currently in high school, the existence of the Facebook group generated a lot of heated discussion on both sides of the homosexuality issue. The Gay-Straight Alliance, though I can only infer its existence, is to reduce bullying against homosexual individuals. Still has merits.
But what caused me great concern was how some people were using their Christian belief to condemn homosexual individuals and openly expressed that on this Facebook group to abolish the GSA. Feelings hurt. Emotions abound. But I didn't actually read any of the comments. I only know what my current high school friends told me through the grapevine.
So I'm a practicing Catholic. I will not hide or deny that. This homosexuality issue concerns me because as a Catholic, do I really know what the Church teaches on this issue? Because it doesn't sit well with me that Christians condemn such individuals.
Understand this about me--I'm currently in a position in life where I desire to be orthodox in my Catholic faith because to be anything less would be such a disservice and so unfortunate to those around me. Now, I don't claim to be an expert in it at all...but I strive to learn more and more but the sheer depth of Catholicism is...well, it'll take a while, haha.
So I went on a small quest to learn what the Catholic Church teaches on the topic of homosexuality.
Here are a few points (no references since I have no time to look it all up) to keep in mind:
- The Catholic Church teaches that all human beings deserve dignity and respect from conception to natural death
- Natural law comes into play. There's a certain order in the world as we know it and you can verify this with scientific fact.
- The Catholic Church reserves sex between husband and wife, but not without good reason which I can't give justice at explaining right now.
- I find that Catholicism is like a body. It only makes sense within the context of everything else, but that would require me to write a book and not a single blog post. To discern a finger's purpose without the hand makes it difficult to know why the finger is even there. Keep this in mind: by only focusing on homosexuality and the Catholic Church, I'm removing homosexuality in context of everything else we teach. And it pains me to have to do so, but I have to for the sake of time.
There's a whole section regarding man and woman created in God (Part III, Article 6) with focuses on sexuality, chastity, offenses against chastity, the love between husband and wife, etc etc.
Let me copy for you the CCC paragraphs that refer to homosexuality.
2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity (from Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, Persona Humana 8) tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."(Familiaris consortio 11). They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.From CCC 2357, we see that homosexuality acts are a no-no. Why? Because they are contrary to natural law. Homosexual acts are disordered (using the meaning "out of order") of the way our sexual faculties are meant to be used. This deserves more clarification, but again...no time. Natural law is covered elsewhere in the CCC and other resources.
CCC 2358 is probably my favorite. Hey, we all have trials to deal with. Homosexuality is just a particular one that some have to deal with. But that doesn't mean we condemn them. The Catholic Church calls everyone to fulfill God's will--even homosexuals.
CCC 2359 might be hard to understand by itself. The Catholic Church teaches that everyone is called to chastity in all states of life: single, married, or some sort of religious life (like monks, priests, nuns, etc). No one is excluded from this call to chastity.
Let me bring another resource. It's called Be A Man by Father Larry Richards. He provides an awesome example of how to deal with being Catholic towards homosexuals. From Chapter 4:
In America, discussing the Church's teaching on homosexuality is considered wrong. The world says we should not go around judging homosexuals, which is true, but we need to lead them to freedom! We need to love them and help them and encourage them, but we can never say that an active homosexual lifestyle is okay.
Years ago when I was a chaplain at Penn State Behrend, there was a large group called Trigon, a gay and lesbian group. Sometimes they would try to debate with my Catholic students, but rarely was it ever productive. One Sunday night as I was hearing confessions, one of my students came in and said, "Father, we are getting killed out there!" because the Trigon group was filming our students and asking them about their views on homosexuality. The students really did not know how to stand up to them without getting mad or in an argument, so I told them to wait till after I was done hearing confessions, and then I would try to assist them.
After I was done hearing confessions, I went outside. They were ready with the cameras and microphones for me. The interviewer asked me, "Father, can we ask you a question?"
"Why, of course", I said.
"Do you believe homosexuals can go to heaven?" "Well, sure."
"What? Well, do you believe it is a sin?"
"Well, of course. Just like fornication. Sex before marriage is a sin. Sin is sin. I am not here to say one sin is worse than the other, but I will say that is sin and God calls us to repentance. I've had three friends who have died of AIDS, all homosexuals. Every one of them was trying to fill up the emptiness inside. The deepest need in our hearts is to be loved, and that is where God wants to meet us. When we go around and try to fill up the emptiness of the flesh, we have to keep doing it because the emptiness grows."
As I was talking to this man in this way, he said, "Turn off the camera." Then he started to cry. He said, "Father, please help me." I then shared with him the freedom found in Christ Jesus.
When you stand for truth in love, you can bring life to others. If you and I just go around condemning people, that's not of God. God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of His truth (1 Tim 2:4). We are forbidden by God to judge others (Mt 7:1). If we do choose to judge others, all we are going to do is keep them away from God. They will run away from us. If we love them enough and speak the truth in love as Paul says, then we can bring them to salvation. Simply saying, "I'm right, you're wrong", is not using the gift of fortitude....and really, that is exemplary of the true Catholic way. I can't really top that in my own blabbering of words. So no further comment from me on that.
Anyway, knowing that I'm posting this without much revision or proper order of thought...The big points I want to stress is:
- The Catholic Church does not condemn homosexuals--just homosexual acts.
- Homosexuals are to be treated with dignity and respect, just as everyone else on this earth.
I'm not here to provide a reasoned explanation as to why...but to simply state what is.
To my fellow human beings, we must strive to love all peoples with the dignity and respect they deserve. No matter what.
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If you have further questions regarding this or anything that stems off of this, I recommend going to www.catholic.com [2]. The forum on there is a great place to pose questions or read the answers to questions people have already asked. They welcome all non-Catholics too!Also, look at our Catechism too. It covers a wide range of topics. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has it in English [3].
[1] http://www.wfaa.com/news/education/Abolish-the-Gay-Straight-Alliance-Facebook-page-132022863.html
[2] http://www.catholic.com
[3] http://old.usccb.org/catechism/text/
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