Same-sex controversies

Teaching of the Church

Scripture

• You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination (Leviticus 18: 22)
• If a man lies with a male as with a female, both of them have committed an abomination (Lev 20:13).
• Likewise, the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah depicts, among other things, the sinfulness of homosexual activity. It is too lengthy to reproduce here in its entirety, but you can read about it in Genesis 19.
• For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them…in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct (Romans 1:18ff).
• Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanders nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6-9).
• The law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, for those who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted (1 Timothy 1: 8-11).

Catechism

CCC 2357-2359

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, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." 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.

References

Same sex "marriage"

Telling the difference

Science informs us that sex is related to procreation: the action achieved by natural sexual relations is the transmission of genetic material from the male to the female, which is the natural means by which men and women come into being. The male reaches the summit of pleasure in transmitting the material; the woman's body is perfectly designed to receive the genetic material, conceive a child, gestate for nine months, then nurture the baby after birth. People who separate the pleasure of sexuality from the power of procreation are turning a blind eye to the basic biology of sex.

The unitive power of sexual pleasure is necessarily related to the power of a man and woman to conceive a child. This is a natural association. This is the intrinsic structure of the act of love. Although it is possible to enjoy union without giving life, the pleasure comes from engaging in the act by which sons and daughters are naturally generated.

The man has the power to give; the female has the power to receive. What is given and received is what is necessary to begin a new life within the woman's body.

The natural law favors monogamy. Nature requires precisely and only one man and one woman to create a new life. The child has a right to be parented by a united couple for the whole of its life.

To deny that sex is naturally oriented toward procreation is to deny the truths of biology. The motivation for the denial is easy to see: pleasure feels good, while becoming a parent entails a lifetime of service to the child. The body can be fooled into thinking that it is engaged in the procreative act when, in fact, it is not.

From the standpoint of the Church's teaching on natural law, same sex unions are "pseudogamy"--counterfeits of marriage. Same-sex couples may take on all of the outward appearances of a husband and wife, but they lack the one thing necessary: the power to give life through a natural act of love. The fact that doctors can artificially arrange for a child to be born of one member of the couple through in vitro fertilization (IVF) does not change this basic fact that the children so created are not the fruit of a natural act of love but are, lamentably, products of scientific technology.

Piero A. Tozzi, J.D., "My Lewinsky Moment":

The State, for its part, has no legitimate interest whatsoever in licensing same-sex relationships, be they based on friendship or misdirected eros. The State’s interest in marriage originates in a simple biological fact: when men and women congress, children inevitably result. The State thus has an interest in regulating and promoting stable unions among men and women--and for that matter, discouraging unstable ones--such as by privileging marital unions through the tax code and the allocation of benefits, as it is parents who uniquely provide for the common good by ensuring the continued existence of civilization into the future. [emphasis added]

Clarifying terms

In the natural law, there is only one relationship that fulfills the evident design of the body: union between one man and one woman using their procreative organs. The Church does not specify a time, location, or position for the completion of the act of love, but it does teach that the couple use the proper organs properly, so that the union of the two is open to the creation of new life.

With that as the norm, every other use of our sexual powers, alone or with others, appears as abnormal and unnatural.

Evolutionary biologists teach that the animal goal of union is to become the origin of a multitude of descendants, all sharing the parents' genetic heritage. If that is the natural purpose of animal union, then same-sex union is clearly unnatural. No genes can be transmitted to the next generation by means of same-sex relationships.

Consequences of calling same-sex relations "marriage

The Church has long accepted the decriminalization of sexual sins.

The drive to place same-sex relations on par with natural marriage goes beyond keeping private acts between consenting adults private; those who advocate the establishment of same-sex "marriage" have a much broader agenda:

• Changing school curricula.
• Forcing churches to perform same-sex weddings.
• Gaining access to banquet halls.
• Adopting children.
• Compelling the Church to change her teachings on sexuality. It may become a "hate crime" to read from the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the future.

If there is no God ...

... then the hatred of the Church and the desire to force her to change her teachings makes perfect sense.

If there is no God, then religion is just arbitrary and capricious. All religions are equally respectable and equally meaningless. No real harm can be done to any religious group by setting aside their arbitrary beliefs and imposing new beliefs selected by the government.

Self-sterilizing couples ally with same-sex advocates

Couples who sterilize themselves temporarily or permanently are natural allies of the same-sex lobby. Both groups believe that it is good to separate the pleasure of sexual union from the power of procreation. As a consequence, both think of marriage in terms of the benefits to partners rather than in terms of duties to children.

Both groups assert that marriage is primarily for the benefit of the couple rather than for the benefit of children.

Links

• The Ruth Institute, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse.
• Courage, a Catholic support group for Catholics who wish to live a chaste life in spite of their same-sex attractions.
• Boston Archdiocese Releases Non-Discrimination Policy for Catholic Schools.
• "Natural Law and Homosexuality"--an argumentative flow chart.
• "Was Jesus Really Silent on Same Sex Marriage?"