Being gay and catholic
Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ+ Issues: Roman Catholic Church
BACKGROUND
The Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the society, with approximately billion members across the globe. With its origins in the earliest days of Christianity, the Church traces its leadership––in the person of the Pope––to St. Peter, identified by Jesus as “the rock” on which the Church would be built.
The Catholic Church in the United States numbers over 70 million members, and is organized in 33 Provinces, each led by an archbishop. Each bishop answers directly to the Pope, not to an archbishop. Those Provinces are further divided into dioceses, each led by a bishop. At the base of the organizational structure are local parishes, headed by a pastor, appointed by the local bishop. The Conference of Catholic Bishops in the United States meets semi-annually.
As part of a global organization with its institutional center at the Vatican, the Catholic Church in America is shaped by worldwide societal and cultural trends. It is further shaped by direction that is entirely male, with w
A few years before male lover marriage became the regulation of the land, I was in a Baltimore pub having dinner with a Jesuit priest. We were talking about vocation, and I was telling him I wanted to go to graduate institution so I could grasp how to offer theological arguments in favor of homosexuality.
“And you know”, I told him, “the story of Sodom and Gomorrah isn’t about homosexuality per se, but rape. Even Jesus interprets the cities’ downfall in terms of their inhospitality.”
“Sure”, he said, taking another drink.
“And the biblical laws prohibiting same-sex activity were intended to maximise the population”, I added.
He nodded.
“And Paul’s rhetoric about what goes against nature …”
He slice me off. “Why are you so obsessed with this? You want to focus all your graduate work on this?”
I didn’t understand the question. I had to focus all my attention on this. These were the so-called “clobber passages” that Catholics and Protestants alike acquire used to marginalise male lover people for centuries. I couldn’t just leave them be. I couldn’t just let them go unchallenged.
“Taking on these passa
Hi Heather,
Following the Sacred Scriptures the Catholic Church believes that lgbtq+ acts &#; gay sex, in other words &#; are gravely sinful, and if deliberately done knowing this, separate you from God and imperil your spirit.
Homosexual inclinations are not, in and of themselves, sinful, but they are intrinsically disordered. The attitude the Church takes to gays can be summed up by love the sinner, dislike the sin. Gays deserve sympathy and understanding but homosexual acts cannot be tolerated.
The Catholic Church takes no official position on whether parents should shun gay relatives but
it is consistent with good parenting to protect your children from being exposed to immoral situations, lest they get the trace that the gay lifestyle (or whatever the situation is) is OK.
You are living a life fundamentally contrary to the Catholic faith, and she simply sees the two of you as a bad example to her children. A relevant paragraph from the Catholic Catechism (teaching guide), number , under Chastity and homosexuality is:
"The number of men and women who HomosexualityThroughout history, Jewish and Christian scholars have recognized that one of the main person sins involved in God’s destruction of Sodom was its people’s homosexual conduct. But today, certain queer activists promote the concept that the sin of Sodom was merely a lack of hospitality. Although inhospitality is a sin, it is clearly the homosexual behavior of the Sodomites that is singled out for special criticism in the account of their city’s destruction. We must look to Scripture’s own interpretation of the sin of Sodom. Jude 7 records that Sodom and Gomorrah “acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust.” Ezekiel says that Sodom committed “abominable things” (Ezek. ), which could cite to homosexual and heterosexual acts of sin. Lot even offered his two virgin daughters in place of his guests, but the men of Sodom rejected the offer, preferring homosexual sex over heterosexual sex (Gen. –9). But the Sodom incident is not the only moment the Old Testament deals with homosexuality. An explicit condemnation is found in the book of Leviticus: “You shall not stretch with a m |