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.
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.
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 (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2357-2359).
What you've just read is the official teaching of the Catholic Church on homosexuality. Believe it or not, the Church's teaching does go beyond #2357, although it would seem that most Catholics -- including the very authors of the Catechism -- have forgotten #2358-2359. But then again, can you say that these have been forgotten when they were never received in the first place? But I think it's even more clear that the Church has paid no attention to the latter part of its teaching on homosexuality now that the Church is even spitting in the faces of homosexual persons who have followed the Church's teaching on chastity.
The Church's teaching in #2358-2359 is similar to the "listening process" called for but never implemented in the Anglican Communion, or the supposed full welcome given to homosexuals in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Empty words. That's all they are. Most of the provinces of the Anglican Communion haven't listened to a single homosexual person, even while expecting those who have listened to forget what they heard. The Evangelical Lutheran Church is not opening its institutions to welcome homosexuals. And the Catholic Church isn't accepting homosexuals with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.
But I want you to imagine for a moment what the world might look like if the Catholic Church paid half as much attention to the latter part of the Catechism's teaching on homosexuality as it does to the former part. Instead of a document further restricting the ways in which even celibate homosexuals can participate in the life of the Church, maybe we would be seeing a document that condemns state-sponsored execution of homosexuals in nations where the Church has established an active missionary presence. Or maybe we would be seeing a condemnation of Poland's Soviet-style persecution of homosexuals, an exhortation for Poland to rise above the kind of totalitarian mentality imposed upon it for so long by the Soviet Union.
In the past thirty years, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has published four major documents related to the Church's teaching on the disordered nature of homosexuality and the immoral nature of homosexual affection, three of which were promulgated under the pontificate of the late Pope John Paul II and under the direction of Joseph Ratzinger, then the prefect of that Congregation. In that thirty years, can you guess how many documents have been issued related to the latter half of the Catechism's teachings? If you guessed none, you're almost a winner. In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that H.H. Ratzinger did discuss the subject of violence against homosexuals in two paragraphs of a 1986 document, ultimately concluding that we bring it upon ourselves:
It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action and in law.
But the proper reaction to crimes committed against homosexual persons should not be to claim that the homosexual condition is not disordered. When such a claim is made and when homosexual activity is consequently condoned, or when civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the Church not society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase (Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, #10, emphasis mine).
So what am I getting at? It's simple, really. Will the Catholic Church's leadership ever practice what it preaches? While expecting us to obey steadfastly the commandments of the Catechism, why didn't Pope John Paul II do anything to further #2358-2359, and why isn't Pope Benedict XVI doing anything now? Why haven't they been speaking out against state-sponsored execution of homosexuals and other acts of violence committed against us throughout the world? Why can they find the courage to condemn us as Pontius Pilate might, but not find the courage to protect and help us as Christ certainly would? Why do they stand as lords and judges over us, when they do not stand in solidarity with us as Christ commanded? What kind of shepherds are they who beat us with their crosiers, then leave us for the goats to devour?
I want you to forget for a moment that you disagree with me over Catechism #2357, and I want you to imagine with me -- imagine what the world might look like if the Church's leadership consistently applied the fullness of its teaching on homosexuality. Now, isn't it a shame that we'll never see that happen?
