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{{Short description|none}} | |||
{{For|a wider perspective|Christianity and homosexuality}} | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}} | |||
{{Roman Catholicism}} | |||
{{Roman Catholicism|controversies}} | |||
{{Christianity and sexual orientation}} | {{Christianity and sexual orientation}} | ||
{{For|a wider perspective|Christianity and homosexuality|Catholic theology of sexuality}} | |||
] is considered in the ] teaching under two distinct aspects. Homosexuality ''as an orientation'' is considered an "objective disorder" because seen as "ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil", but not as ]ful.<ref name="pastoral">{{cite web|url=http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html |title=Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons |publisher=Vatican.va |accessdate=2013-02-11}}</ref> Homosexuality ''as sexual activity'' is seen as a "moral disorder"<ref name="pastoral"/> and "homosexual acts" as "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."<ref name="CCC2357">{{cite web|url=http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm#2357 |title=Chastity and homosexuality|work=Catechism of the Catholic Church - Article 6: The sixth commandment |publisher=Vatican.va |date=1951-10-29 |accessdate=2013-02-11}}</ref> | |||
The relationship between the '''Catholic Church and homosexuality''' is complex and often contentious, involving various conflicting views between the ] and some in the ]. According to Catholic doctrine, solely having ] itself is not considered inherently sinful; it is the ] with someone of the same sex that is regarded as a grave ] against ]. The Church also does not recognize nor perform any ]. However, the '']'' emphasizes that all same-sex individuals must "be accepted and treated with respect, compassion, and sensitivity," and that all forms of unjust discrimination should be discouraged and avoided at all cost.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church |url=https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/568/ |access-date=2022-12-23 |website=www.usccb.org}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> | |||
The Catholic Church believes that marriage can only be between a man and a woman,<ref></ref><ref></ref> and opposes introduction of ].<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref> The Church also holds that same-sex unions are an unfavourable environment for children and that the legalization of such unions damages society.<ref name="2003 letter">Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons, 2003, points 7 and 8</ref> | |||
The Church's teachings on this issue have developed over time, influenced by papal interventions and theologians, including the early ]. ] is provided through a variety of official and unofficial channels, varying from ] to diocese. In recent years, senior clergy and popes have called for the Church to increase its support for LGBTQ individuals. | |||
Leading figures in the Catholic hierarchy, including cardinals and bishops, have sometimes actively campaigned against same-sex marriage<ref name="ReferenceC"/><ref name="Africareview.com"/><ref name="gaystarnews.com"/><ref name="Vatican condemns Spain gay bill"/><ref name="independent.ie"/><ref name="irishexaminer.com"/><ref name="Gay Star News"/> or have encouraged others to campaign against it,<ref name="ReferenceC">Comment. "We cannot afford to indulge this madness". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2012-04-29</ref><ref name="Africareview.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.africareview.com/News/Cameroon-Catholic-lawyers-vow-to-uphold-anti-gay-laws/-/979180/1704056/-/g7erql/-/index.html |title=Cameroon Catholic lawyers vow to uphold anti-gay laws: News |publisher=Africareview.com |accessdate=2013-09-02}}</ref><ref name="gaystarnews.com">http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/nigerian-catholics-congratulate-president-making-same-sex-marriage-crime050214</ref><ref name="Vatican condemns Spain gay bill">"". BBC News. 2005-04-22. Retrieved 2007-01-08</ref><ref name="independent.ie"></ref><ref name="irishexaminer.com"></ref><ref name="Gay Star News">{{cite web|author= |url=http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/croatia-says-%E2%80%98i-do%E2%80%99-gay-civil-unions050813 |title=Croatia says 'I do' to gay civil unions |publisher=Gay Star News |date=2013-08-05 |accessdate=2013-09-02}}</ref><ref name="npr-marriage"/><ref name="Patrick">{{cite web|last=Patrick |first=Joseph |url=http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/04/16/archbishop-of-paris-warns-that-equal-marriage-will-lead-to-a-more-violent-society/ |title=France: Archbishop of Paris warns that equal marriage will lead to a more violent society |publisher=PinkNews.co.uk |accessdate=2013-09-02}}</ref> and have done likewise with regard to same-sex ]<ref name="The Independent">{{cite news|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/catholic-church-in-polygamy--attack-on-civil-unions-7965157.html |title=Catholic Church in polygamy attack on civil unions - Europe - World |publisher=The Independent |date=2012-07-23 |accessdate=2013-09-02 |location=London |first=Michael |last=Day}}</ref><ref name="catholicnewsagency.com">{{cite news|title=Irish cardinal urges opposition to homosexual civil unions|url=http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/irish_cardinal_urges_opposition_to_homosexual_civil_unions/|accessdate=27 August 2013|newspaper=Catholic News Agency|date=25 August 2009|location=Armagh, Ireland}}</ref> and ],<ref name="2003 letter"/> and other ] (including non-discrimination).<ref name="cna"/><ref name="abroad"/> The church has opposed the decriminalization of homosexual activity in certain countries, and stood against a proposed call for global decriminalization from the ].<ref name="abroad">{{cite news|last=Dias|first=Elizabeth|title=Gays Abroad Have Most to Gain from Pope Francis' Latest Comments |url=http://swampland.time.com/2013/07/31/gays-abroad-have-most-to-gain-from-pope-francis-latest-comments/|accessdate=24 August 2013|newspaper=Time Swampland|date=31 July 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Ing |first=Dr |url=http://patrickattard.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/lehen-is-sewwa-1972-ittra-pastorali.html |title=Malta Gay News Library: Leħen is-Sewwa 1973: Ittra Pastorali kontra d-Dekriminalazzjoni ta' l-Omosesswalità |publisher=Patrickattard.blogspot.co.uk |date=2009-03-23 |accessdate=2013-11-26 |language=Maltese |trans_title=Voice of Sewwa 1973: Pastoral Letter against Decriminalization of Homosexuality}}</ref><ref name=Migliore/><ref name="reuters-decrim"/><ref name="belize"/><ref name="monitor"/> However, in other countries, and again at the United Nations, the church has opposed its criminalization - reflecting a wide range of opinions within the global church.<ref name=CNA/><ref name="zenit.org"></ref><ref name="Hansard.millbanksystems.com">{{cite web|url=http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1966/jul/05/sexual-offences-no-2 |title=SEXUAL OFFENCES (No. 2) (Hansard, 5 July 1966) |publisher=Hansard.millbanksystems.com |date=1966-07-05 |accessdate=2013-11-26}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Ed. Yorick Smaal, ''Out Here: Gay and Lesbian Perspectives VI'', Monash University</ref><ref name="asianews.it">{{Cite news |url=http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Supreme-Court-rules-homosexuality-is-a-crime.-Archbishop-of-Mumbai-:-Gays-are-not-criminals-29778.html |title=Supreme Court rules homosexuality is a crime. Archbishop of Mumbai: Gays are not criminals}}</ref> | |||
Globally, the ], and its relationship with the LGBTQ community has been particularly strained during critical moments, such as the height of the ].<ref name="zgUFs" /> Some ], including priests and bishops, have been openly gay or bisexual. Catholic dissenters have argued that legally consensual relations between people of the same-sex is as inherently spiritual and valuable as the same for those of the opposite-sex. | |||
Many Catholics disagree with the official position of the Roman Catholic hierarchy on LGBT people, and in locations, such as North America, Northern and Western Europe, as well as the ], show stronger support for ] (such as same-sex marriage, or protection against discrimination) than the general population.<ref>See | |||
*{{cite web|author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,IRBC,,PHL,4562d8cf2,440ed74ba,0.html |title=Refworld | Philippines: Treatment of homosexuals and state protection available (2000-2005) |publisher=UNHCR |accessdate=2013-02-11}} | |||
On the other hand, some Catholic organizations and institutions that uphold church teachings on sexual activities campaigned against ], advocating for the promotion and encouragement of ] and ] among LGBT Catholics. ] has taken a notably different approach to these subjects than that of his predecessors. He became the first pope to support granting ] as a legal protection for ].<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last= |date=21 October 2020 |title=Pope Francis calls for civil union law for same-sex couples, in shift from Vatican stance |url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/46295/pope-francis-calls-for-civil-union-law-for-same-sex-couples-in-shift-from-vatican-stance |access-date=16 January 2024 |website=] |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":37">{{Cite web |date=16 September 2021 |title=Same-sex civil unions 'good and helpful to many', says Pope Francis |url=https://www.euronews.com/2021/09/16/same-sex-civil-unions-good-and-helpful-to-many-says-pope-francis |access-date=16 January 2024 |website=] |language=en}}</ref> He has also publicly denounced ]s.<ref name=":33">{{Cite web |date=25 January 2023 |title=The AP Interview: Pope says homosexuality not a crime |url=https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-gay-rights-ap-interview-1359756ae22f27f87c1d4d6b9c8ce212 |access-date=23 January 2024 |website=] |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite web |last=Pullella |first=Philip |date=6 February 2023 |title=Pope Francis says laws criminalising LGBT people are a 'sin' and an injustice |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-francis-says-laws-criminalising-lgbt-people-are-sin-an-injustice-2023-02-05/ |access-date=16 January 2024 |website=]}}</ref><ref name=":34">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=27 January 2023 |title=Pope Francis clarifies comments on homosexuality: "One must consider the circumstances." |url=https://outreach.faith/2023/01/pope-francis-clarifies-comments-on-homosexuality-one-must-consider-the-circumstances/ |access-date=23 January 2024 |website=] |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
*{{cite web|last=Newport|first=Frank|title=For First Time, Majority of Americans Favor Legal Gay Marriage|url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/147662/First-Time-Majority-Americans-Favor-Legal-Gay-Marriage.aspx|publisher=]|accessdate=25 September 2012}} | |||
*{{cite web|title=Survey – Generations at Odds: The Millennial Generation and the Future of Gay and Lesbian Rights|url=http://publicreligion.org/research/2011/08/generations-at-odds/|publisher=]|accessdate=25 September 2012}} | |||
*{{cite news|title=Data Points: Support for Legal Same-Sex Marriage|url=http://chronicle.com/article/Chart-Support-for-Legal/64683/|accessdate=25 September 2012|newspaper=]|date=16 March 2010}} | |||
*{{cite web|title=Pew Forum Part 2: Public Opinion on Gay Marriage|url=http://www.pewforum.org/PublicationPage.aspx?id=647|publisher=]|accessdate=25 September 2012}} | |||
*{{cite web|title=Support for Same‐Sex Marriage in Latin America|url=http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/insights/I0844.enrevised.pdf|publisher=]|accessdate=25 September 2012}} | |||
*{{cite news|title=Most Irish people support gay marriage, poll says|url=http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/02/24/most-irish-people-support-gay-marriage-poll-says/|accessdate=25 September 2012|newspaper=PinkNews|date=24 February 2011}} | |||
*{{cite news|last=Jowit|first=Juliette|title=Gay marriage gets ministerial approval|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/12/gay-marriage-receive-ministerial-approval|accessdate=25 September 2012|newspaper=]|date=12 June 2012|location=London}} | |||
*{{cite web|url=http://www.ifop.com/?option=com_publication&type=poll&id=1956 |title=Les Français, les catholiques et les droits des couples homosexuels |publisher=Ifop.com |date=2012-08-14 |accessdate=2013-02-11}} | |||
*</ref><ref name="USAtoday"/> | |||
==Church teaching== | ==Church teaching== | ||
The Catholic Church teaches that, as a person does not choose to be either homosexual or heterosexual, subjectively experiencing attraction for (a) person(s) of one's own sex is not inherently ].<ref name="CurranCurran1998" /><ref name="Martin" /> According to the ], all sexual acts must be open to ] by nature and express the symbolism of male-female complementarity.<ref name="reid" />{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=}} Sexual acts between two members of the same sex cannot meet these standards.<ref name="Linacre" /> Homosexuality thus constitutes a ].<ref name="Linacre" /><ref name="reid" />{{sfn|Jung|2007|pp=}} The church teaches that gay persons are called to practice ].<ref name="CCC" /> | |||
The church also teaches that gay people "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity", and that "every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided."<ref name="CCC" />{{efn|See also ], paragraph 11.<ref name="care" />}} whilst holding that discrimination in marriage,<ref name="Considerations" />{{sfn|Jung|2007|pp=}} employment, housing, and adoption in some circumstances can be just and "obligatory."<ref name="Homosexual Persons - July 1992" /><ref>{{cite web | url=https://en.unav.edu/web/humanities-and-medical-ethics-unit/bioethics-material/carta-sobre-la-atencion-pastoral-a-las-personas-homosexuales | title=Letter on the pastoral care of homosexual persons. Bioethics Material. Humanities and Medical Ethics Unit }}</ref> | |||
Catholic teaching condemns homosexual acts as gravely immoral, while holding that homosexual persons "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity", and "every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided", in line with the traditional saying: "Love the sinner, hate the sin."<ref>], (Oxford University Press 2013 ISBN 978-0-19997510-5), p. 180 or ; and cf. </ref> "The Catholic Church holds that, as a state beyond a person's choice, being homosexual is not wrong or sinful in itself. But just as it is objectively wrong for unmarried heterosexuals to engage in sex, so too are homosexual acts considered to be wrong."<ref> (ABC-CLIO 2003 ISBN 978-1-85109372-4), p. 184</ref> | |||
According to the ], "homosexual acts" are "grave sins against chastity" and "expressions of the vice of ]."<ref></ref> Homosexual acts are included among the grave sins against chastity in the ].<ref name=":1"></ref> | |||
According to the Catechism, "homosexual acts" (i.e., sexual acts between persons of the same sex) are "acts of grave depravity" that are "intrinsically disordered." It continues, "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."<ref name="CCC" /><ref name="Dx2YJ" /> Regarding homosexuality as an orientation, the Catechism describes it as "objectively disordered."<ref name="CCC" /> | |||
===The Holy See=== | |||
The church points to several passages in the Bible as the basis for its teachings, including ] 19:1-11, ] 18:22 and 20:13, ] 6:9, ] 1:18-32, and ] 1:10.{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=}} In December 2019, the ] published a book that included an ] on these and other passages.<ref name="Brockhaus" /> | |||
====Overview in the Catechism of the Catholic Church==== | |||
Research conducted in the fields of ] and ] indicates that the Catholic Church's teachings on sexuality are "a major source of conflict and distress" to LGBT Catholics.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Deguara |author-first=Angele |year=2020 |chapter=The Ambivalent Relationship of LGBT Catholics with the Church |editor1-last=Hood |editor1-first=Ralph W. |editor2-last=Cheruvallil-Contractor |editor2-first=Sariya |title=Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion: A Diversity of Paradigms |volume=31 |pages=487–509 |location=] and ] |publisher=] |doi=10.1163/9789004443969_025 |isbn=978-90-04-44348-8 |s2cid=241116008 |issn=1046-8064}}</ref> | |||
The '']'' summarizes the Church's teaching on homosexuality.<ref>Stewart 2003, p. 184</ref> | |||
== Same-sex marriage == | |||
This book, a first provisional edition of which was published in 1992, states: | |||
The church opposes ] and ]. It also opposes same-sex ]s and does not bless them,<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-56402096 |publisher=BBC |date=15 March 2021 |title=Catholic Church 'cannot bless same-sex unions'}}</ref> although some priests and bishops have offered blessings for same-sex couples or spoken in favor of priests being able to bless them.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123082352/https://novenanews.com/german-bishops-head-gay-couple-faithfulness/ |date=23 January 2021 }}, 14. April 2020</ref><ref name="847VB" /><ref name="Wimmer" /> Nevertheless, ] expressed support for civil-unions to protect gay couples in the documentary '']'' (2020),<ref name=":12" /> and in a press conference in September 2021.<ref name=":37" /> In that press conference, he said: "If a homosexual couple wants to lead a life together, the State has the possibility to give them safety, stability, inheritance; and not only to homosexuals but to all the people who want to live together. But marriage is a sacrament, between a man and a woman".<ref name=":37" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Horowitz |first=Jason |date=2020-10-21 |title=In Shift for Church, Pope Francis Voices Support for Same-Sex Civil Unions |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/world/europe/pope-francis-same-sex-civil-unions.html |access-date=2023-01-01 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-15 |title=Pope: No same sex marriage, but uphold other rights |url=https://apnews.com/article/europe-business-religion-pope-francis-marriage-a1db9c2a85852ef310c10ffc1c6f6531 |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=AP NEWS |language=en}}</ref> | |||
{{blockquote|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.<ref name="CCC2357"/>}} | |||
While the Catholic Church explicitly denies its blessing for marital union between two people of the same sex, the Catechism of the Catholic Church goes into great detail when describing the legitimacy of individuals who identify as gay as beloved children of God.<ref>{{cite web |date=13 October 2022 |title=The Catechism of the Catholic Church |url=http://archeparchy.ca/wcm-docs/docs/catechism-of-the-catholic-church.pdf |access-date=13 October 2022}}</ref> | |||
<blockquote>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.<br>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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2a6.htm#2358 |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2358-2359 |publisher=Scborromeo.org |date=1951-10-29 |accessdate=2011-12-05}}</ref></blockquote> | |||
In March 2021, the ] said that the church cannot bless ]s because "God cannot bless sin".<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=2021-03-15 |title=Catholic Church 'cannot bless same-sex unions' |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-56402096 |access-date=2023-01-03}}</ref> On 18 December 2023, it published {{lang|la|]}}, a declaration allowing Catholic priests to bless people who are not considered to be married by the Church, including same-sex couples.<ref name=":53">{{cite web |title=Fiducia supplicans |url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20231218_fiducia-supplicans_en.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231220220316/https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20231218_fiducia-supplicans_en.html |archive-date=20 December 2023 |access-date=21 December 2023 |website=] |ref=Paragraph 31}}</ref> | |||
The first provisional edition in 1992 containing the line "They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial" was changed in the 1997 definitive edition to say instead "This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial".<ref>Originally published in French in {{cite book |title=Catéchisme de l'Église Catholique |last= |first= |authorlink= |year=1992 |publisher=Mame/Plon |location=Tours/Paris |isbn=2-266-00585-5 |page=584 |pages= |url= |quote=Ils ne choisissent pas leur condition homosexuelle; elle constitue pour la plupart d'entre eux une épreuve}} See {{cite web | url=http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/updates.htm | title=Modifications from the Edito Typica | accessdate=11 May 2012 | year=2009|publisher=Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church website/Amministrazione Del Patrimonio Della Sede Apostolica}} and {{cite web |url=http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?entry_id=4861 |title=Respect, Compassion and Sensitivity |author=James Martin, S.J. |date=12 January 2012 |work=blog |publisher=] |accessdate=11 May 2012}}</ref> | |||
== Blessings for same-sex couples == | |||
====''Persona humana''==== | |||
{{Main article|Fiducia supplicans}} | |||
In 1975, the ] issued the document '']'' dealing with sexual ethics. It stated that acceptance of homosexual activity was against the church's teaching and morality. While, it said, a distinction existed between people who were gay because of "a false education, a lack of normal sexual development," or other curable non-biological causes and people who were innately or "pathological" homosexual, it criticized those who argued that innate homosexuality justified same-sex sexual activity within loving relationships and stated that the Bible condemned homosexual activity as depraved, "intrinsically disordered", never to be approved, and a consequence of rejecting God.<ref></ref> In a 2006 commentary on the document, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger remarked that its description of homosexual ''acts'' as "intrinsically disordered" was misinterpreted by some as permitting the qualification of the homosexual ''tendency'' as neutral or even good, an idea rejected also in the 1986 Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.<ref></ref> | |||
In March 2021, the ] said that the Church can not ] ] because "God cannot bless sin".<ref name=":2" /> On 25 September 2023, in a ''responsum'' to conservative ] before the ], Francis signalled the Church's openness to blessings for gay couples as long as they did not misrepresent the Catholic view of marriage as between one man and one woman.<ref name="McElwee-20232">{{cite web |last1=McElwee |first1=Joshua J. |date=2 October 2023 |title=Pope signals openness to blessings for gay couples, study of women's ordination |url=https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/news/pope-signals-openness-blessings-gay-couples-study-womens-ordination |access-date=16 October 2023 |website=] |publisher=Joe Ferullo |language=en |location=Kansas City}}</ref><ref name="Allen-20232">{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=Elise Ann |date=2 October 2023 |title=Pope offers cautious 'yes' on blessing some same-sex unions, 'no' on woman priests |url=https://cruxnow.com/2023-consistory-and-synod-for-synodality/2023/10/pope-offers-cautious-yes-on-blessing-some-same-sex-unions-no-on-woman-priests |access-date=16 October 2023 |website=] |language=en}}</ref> | |||
On 18 December 2023, the ] published {{lang|la|]}}, a declaration allowing Catholic priests to bless people who are not considered to be married by the Church, including people in same-sex relationships.<ref name=":53" /> These were to be "short and simple pastoral blessings (neither liturgical nor ritualized) of couples in irregular situations (but not of their unions)".<ref name="Clarifies">{{Cite web |date=2024-01-04 |title=DDF clarifies 'Fiducia supplicans' after 'understandable' bishops' reactions |url=https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/ddf-clarifies-fiducia-supplicans |access-date=2024-01-06 |website=] |language=en}}</ref> The declaration does not permit the blessing of the same-sex relationships, only the people within it.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foley |first=Ryan |date=26 January 2024 |title=Pope defends Vatican guidance on same-sex couples: Bless 'the people,' 'not the union' |url=https://www.christianpost.com/news/pope-defends-vatican-guidance-on-same-sex-couples.html |access-date=27 January 2024 |website=] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Connell |first=Gerard |date=26 January 2024 |title=Pope Francis defends blessings of couples in 'irregular situations,' including same-sex unions |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2024/01/26/pope-francis-same-sex-blessing-247031 |access-date=27 January 2024 |website=] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tulloch |first=Joseph |date=26 January 2024 |title=Pope Francis: Bless the persons, not the union - Vatican News |url=https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-01/pope-francis-dicastery-doctrine-faith-sacraments-dignity-faith.html |access-date=27 January 2024 |website=] |language=en}}</ref> | |||
Jeffrey Siker says that the "negative connotations" of the language in ''Persona Humana''—for instance, referring to homosexuality as an "anomaly" that gay people "suffer" from—contrast with more neutral and even positive interpretations of homosexual orientation in the subsequent decade. These interpretations were to be challenged in 1986 as having been "overly benign".<ref name="Siker"/>{{rp|193}} | |||
While the declaration was welcomed by many Catholics,<ref name=":102">{{cite news |last1=Pullella |first1=Philip |date=18 December 2023 |title=Vatican approves blessings for same-sex couples in landmark ruling |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/vatican-approves-blessings-same-sex-couples-under-certain-conditions-2023-12-18/ |access-date=19 December 2023 |work=]}}</ref> it also sparked considerable controversy and criticism,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Luxmoore |first=Jonathan |date=5 January 2024 |title=Episcopate gives Rome a rough ride over ''Fiducia Supplicans'' declaration |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/5-january/news/world/episcopate-gives-rome-a-rough-ride-over-fiducia-supplicans-declaration |access-date=7 January 2024 |website=] |quote=Another former Vatican Prefect, German Cardinal Müller, rejected the Declaration on 21 December, however, branding it a "sacrilegious and blasphemous act against the Creator’s plan", which "directly contradicted" previous Vatican guidance and was "not based on any church doctrine, biblical teaching, writings by church Fathers or Doctors of the Church".}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Quiñones |first=Kate |date=8 January 2024 |title=Cardinal Sarah speaks out against clergy blessing same-sex unions |url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256481/cardinal-sarah-speaks-out-against-clergy-blessing-same-sex-unions |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110122754/https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256481/cardinal-sarah-speaks-out-against-clergy-blessing-same-sex-unions |archive-date=10 January 2024 |access-date=10 January 2024 |website=] |language=en}}</ref> with several bishops' conferences barring the blessings in their jurisdictions or asking priests to refrain from them.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Arnold |first=Tyler |date=22 December 2023 |title=Polish bishops: Church does not have authority to 'bless same-sex unions' |url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256357/polish-bishops-church-does-not-have-authority-to-bless-same-sex-unions |access-date=7 January 2024 |website=] |language=en |quote=Catholic bishops in Poland have ruled out the possibility of blessing "same-sex unions" but remain open to blessing individuals with homosexual tendencies, only if they are "living in complete abstinence" of sexual activities. The Polish bishops’ statement did not expressly criticize the Vatican declaration but appeared to conflict with the guidance contained within it.}}</ref><ref name=":410">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=12 January 2024 |title=African bishops reject same-sex blessings en masse |url=https://catholicherald.co.uk/schism-looms-as-african-bishops-reject-same-sex-blessings-document-en-masse/ |access-date=17 January 2024 |website=] |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
==== Pope John Paul II ==== | |||
] | |||
== History == | |||
] has written that the pontificate of John Paul II increasingly saw sexual morality as a paramount concern, and homosexuality, alongside ], divorce and illicit unions, as a dimension of "the 'culture of death' against which he taught and preached with increasing vehemence".<ref name="cornwell-winter">John Cornwell, ''The Pope in Winter'', Viking 2004</ref> | |||
{{main|History of the Catholic Church and homosexuality}} | |||
{{see also|History of Christianity and homosexuality|Catholic Church and HIV/AIDS}} | |||
The Christian tradition has generally prohibited all sexual activities outside of ].{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=}} This includes activities engaged in by couples or individuals of either the same or different sexes.{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=}} The Catholic Church's position specifically on homosexuality developed from the teachings of the ], which was in stark contrast to Greek and Roman attitudes towards same-sex relations, including ].<ref name="SacksMurray2014" /><ref name="Gagarin2010" /><ref name="Crompton2009" /> | |||
In his teaching, homosexual intercourse is a utilization of each other's body, not a mutual self-giving in familial love, physically expressed by their masculine and feminine bodies; and such intercourse is performed by a choice of the will, unlike homosexual orientation, which is usually not a matter of free choice.<ref></ref> | |||
Canon law regarding same-sex sexual activity has been shaped through the decrees issued by a series of ecclesiastical councils.<ref name="bailey" /> Initially, canons against sodomy were aimed at ensuring clerical or monastic discipline, and were only widened in the medieval period to include laymen.<ref name="Bailey2" /> In the '']'', ] maintained that homosexual practice was contrary to ], arguing that the primary natural end of the sexual act was procreation, and since said procreation is carried out from a process of sexual fertilization between a man and a woman, homosexuality is contrary to the very end of said act.<ref>Blankenhorn, Fr. Bernhard; Droste, Sr. Catherine Joseph; Jindráček, Fr. Efrem; Legge, Fr. Dominic; White, Fr. Thomas Joseph (2015). . ''Angelicum'' '''92''' (3): 297-302. {{ISSN|1123-5772}}.</ref> He also stated that "the unnatural vice" is the greatest of the sins of ].<ref name="summa" /> Throughout the Middle Ages, the church repeatedly condemned homosexuality, and often collaborated with civic authorities to punish gay people. Punishment of sexual "vice" as well as religious heresy was seen as strengthening the church's moral authority.<ref name="clark" /> | |||
On 5 October 1979, Pope John Paul II praised the bishops of the United States for stating that "homosexual activity ... as distinguished from homosexual orientation, is morally wrong". He said that, instead of " out false hope" to homosexuals facing hard moral problems, they had upheld "the true dignity, the true human dignity, of those who look to Christ's Church for the guidance which comes from the light of God's word".<ref></ref> | |||
===The modern church=== | |||
In 2000, he criticized the inaugural ] event scheduled for Rome in that year as "an affront to the ] of the year 2000" and as "an offence to the Christian values" of Rome, and recalled the Church's teaching that homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law, while every sign of unjust discrimination against homosexuals should be avoided.<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref> | |||
] | |||
In the late 20th century, the Church has responded to gay rights movements by reiterating its condemnation of homosexuality while acknowledging the existence of gay people. In January 1976, the ] under ] published '']'', which codified the teaching against all extra-marital sex, including gay sex.<ref name="statesman" /> The document stated that acceptance of homosexual activity runs counter to the church's teaching and morality. It drew a distinction between people who were homosexual because of "a false education," "a bad example" or other causes it described as "not incurable," and a "pathological" condition which was "incurable."<ref name="hp" />{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=193}} However, it criticized those who argued that innate homosexuality justified same-sex sexual activity within loving relationships, and stated that the Bible condemned homosexual activity as depraved, "intrinsically disordered," never to be approved, and a consequence of rejecting God.<ref name="hp" /> | |||
Earlier, the controversially liberal 1966 ], which was the first post-Vatican II Catholic catechism and which had been commissioned by the Dutch bishops, had stated that "The very sharp strictures of Scripture on homosexual practices (Gen. 1; Rom. 1) must be read in their context" as condemning a trend for homosexuality among non-gay people, implying that people who were gay were not condemned for homosexual activity.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,917784-9,00.html |magazine=Time |date=September 8, 1975 |title=HOMOSEXUALITY: Gays on the March}}</ref> | |||
A Dutch gay magazine, ''Gay Krant'', and its readers then initiated a case against him in a Dutch law court, arguing that his comment that homosexual acts are contrary to the laws of nature<ref>])</ref> "give rise to hatred against, and discrimination of certain groups of people" in violation of Dutch law.<ref></ref> This ended when the court ruled that he was immune from prosecution as a head of state (the Vatican).<ref></ref> | |||
In October 1986, the ] released a letter addressed to all the bishops of the Catholic Church entitled '']''.<ref name="YfE7C" /> This was signed by Cardinal ] as prefect. The letter gave instructions on how the clergy should deal with, and respond to, ], ], and ] people.{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=193}} Designed to remove any ambiguity about permissible tolerance of homosexual orientation resulting from the earlier ''Persona Humana''—and prompted by the growing influence of gay-accepting groups and clergy—the letter was particularly aimed at the church in the United States.{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=193}}<ref name="allen-benedict" /><ref name="jZxO2" /> It affirmed the position that while homosexual orientation is not in itself a sin, it is nevertheless a tendency towards the "moral evil" of homosexual activity, and therefore must be considered "an objective disorder",<ref name="Scarnecchia" /><ref name="Linacre" />{{rp|221}} which moreover is "essentially self-indulgent" since homosexual sexual acts are not procreative and therefore not genuinely loving or selfless.{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=193}}<ref name="Scarnecchia" />{{rp|222}} | |||
In his last personal work, '']'', published in 2005, John Paul II spoke of pressure brought to bear on countries like Poland to have homosexual unions accepted as an alternative type of family, and asked whether this was not the work of another ideology of evil, less obvious than the Nazi and Marxist ideologies, bent on utilizing human rights themselves against human beings and the family.<ref></ref><ref></ref> | |||
The letter also said that accepting homosexual acts as morally equivalent to married heterosexual acts was harmful to the family and society and warned bishops to be on guard against, and not to support, Catholic organizations not upholding the Church's doctrine on homosexuality—groups which the letter said were not really Catholic.<ref name="allen-benedict" />{{rp|201}}<ref name="Scarnecchia" />{{rp|223}}<ref name="Congregationfor" /> This alluded to LGBT and LGBT-accepting Catholic groups such as ] and ],<ref name="allen-benedict" />{{rp|201}} and ultimately resulted in the exclusion of Dignity from Church property.<ref name="1VcmJ" /><ref name="RqpYH" /><ref name="ZLH1k" /><ref name="2knT2" /> The letter condemned physical and verbal violence against gay people{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=193}} but reiterated that this did not change its opposition to homosexuality or gay rights.<ref name="Scarnecchia" />{{rp|222}}<ref name="Congregationfor" /> Its claims that accepting and legalizing homosexual behaviour leads to violence ("neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised" when anti-gay hate crimes increase in the wake of gay civil rights legislation) were seen as controversially blaming gay people for homophobic violence and encouraging homophobic violence.{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=193}}<ref name="McNeill4" /> Referring to the ],<ref name="pVsyw" /><ref name="yWelX" /> the letter, McNeill writes, blamed AIDS on gay rights activists and gay-accepting mental health professionals:<ref name="McNeill4" /> "Even when the practice of homosexuality may seriously threaten the lives and well-being of a large number of people, its advocates remain undeterred and refuse to consider the magnitude of the risks involved".<ref name="Congregationfor" /> | |||
====''On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons''==== | |||
] | |||
In October 1986, the ] released a letter addressed to all the bishops of the Catholic Church entitled '']'', which gives instructions on how the clergy should deal with and respond to ], ], and ] people.<ref name="Siker">{{cite book|last=Siker|first=Jeffrey S.|title=Homosexuality And Religion: An Encyclopedia|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CT|page=163}}</ref> ] says the document was designed to remove any ambiguity about tolerance of homosexual orientation proceeding from the 1975 document ''Persona Humana'' and prompted by the growing influence of gay-accepting groups and clergy.<ref name="allen-benedict">John L. Allen, ''Benedict XVI: A Biography'', Continuum, 2005</ref>{{rp|201}} | |||
In a statement released in July 1992, "Some Considerations Concerning the Catholic Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons," the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reiterated its position from "On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons," and further stated that discrimination against gay people in certain areas, such as selecting adoptive or foster parents or in hiring teachers, coaches, or military service members, is not unjust, and thus can be permitted in some circumstances.<ref name="Homosexual Persons - July 1992" /> | |||
The letter, whose ] (the first words in the original, ], text) is ''Homosexualitatis problema''<ref></ref> said that homosexual orientation is not a sin but, as a tendency toward the "moral evil" of homosexual sexual activity, must be considered "an objective disorder".<ref name=Scarnecchia>{{cite book|last=Scarnecchia |first=D. Brian|title=Bioethics, Law, and Human Life Issues|year=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-81087423-7|page=221}} By "disordered", the letter means that homosexuality is a departure from the norm and not, as usage in English could suggest, sinful, demeaning or sickly. ({{cite book|last=O'Rourke |first=Kevin D.|title=Medical Ethics|year=1999|publisher=Georgetown University Press|isbn=978-0-87840722-4|page=199}})</ref> What it thus says of homosexual orientation has been described as on the lines of what can be said of kleptomania, which is not in itself sinful, but is an objective disorder in that it leads to an immoral activity.<ref name=Linacre/> | |||
On 31 October 2023, a document from the ], responding to questions from José Negri, ]''',''' said that transgender people could be baptised, be godparents at a baptism, and be witnesses at weddings, so long as such situations would not cause ].<ref name=":38">{{Cite web |last1=Fernández |first1=Víctor Manuel |author-link=Víctor Manuel Fernández |last2=Francis |author-link2=Pope Francis |date=31 October 2023 |title=Answers to Several Questions from His Excellency, the Most Reverend José Negri, Bishop of Santo Amaro, Brazil, Regarding Participation in the Sacraments of Baptism and Matrimony by Transgender Persons and Homosexual Persons |url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_20231031-documento-mons-negri_en.html |access-date=26 January 2024 |website=]}}</ref><ref name=":39">{{Cite news |date=9 November 2023 |title=Transgender people can be baptised and be godparents, Vatican says |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67366198 |access-date=26 January 2024 |work=] |language=en-GB}}</ref> Moreover, the responses stated that under the prudence of the ], a cohabiting “homoaffective” Catholic can be a godparent, being understood that where that person is not merely “cohabiting” but notoriously doing so “''more uxorio''” (i.e. in a sexual relationship), the situation would be “different”. The responses were signed by both Pope Francis and ] of the ].<ref name=":38" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Coppen |first=Luke |date=2023-11-08 |title=Vatican Says Transgender People Can Be Baptized and Become Godparents |language=en-US |work=The Pillar |url=https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/ddf-responds-to-transgender-dubia |access-date=2023-12-28 }}</ref> The Vatican stated that the document "simply clarified church teaching and did not constitute new policy or a change in policy."<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Horowitz |first1=Jason |last2=Povoledo |first2=Elisabetta |last3=Graham |first3=Ruth |date=2023-11-09 |title=Vatican Says Transgender People Can Be Baptized and Become Godparents |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/world/europe/pope-francis-transgender-people.html |access-date=2023-11-24 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> | |||
The letter rejects the idea that homosexual activity is always totally compulsive and therefore inculpable for a homosexual person, while it also states that circumstances can diminish or eliminate or also augment an individual's culpability.<ref>{http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html ''Homosexualitatis problema'', 11]</ref><ref name=Linacre></ref> Robert J. Dempsey interprets the Congregation as saying of the effect of a homosexual tendency on an individual's culpability what can be said also of the effect of a kleptomaniac tendency on a person's culpability for his stealing.<ref name=Linacre/> | |||
==Pastoral care for gay Catholics== | |||
The letter (in section 7) said that homosexual orientation is "essentially self-indulgent" and that homosexual sexual acts are not genuinely loving.<ref name="Siker"/>{{rp|198}}<ref name="Scarnecchia 2010">Scarnecchia (2010)</ref>{{rp|222}} Siker interprets as teaching "that a gay male or lesbian sexual identity is not to be celebrated, nor is it properly seen as a source of pride" the document's description, in section 12, of homosexual orientation as objectively disordered.<ref name="Siker"/>{{rp|194}} | |||
{{main|Pastoral care for gay Catholics}} | |||
Beginning in the 1970s, the ] taught that gay people "should have an active role in the Christian community" and have called on "all Christians and citizens of good will to confront their own fears about homosexuality and to curb the humor and discrimination that offend homosexual persons. We understand that having a homosexual orientation brings with it enough anxiety, pain and issues related to self-acceptance without society bringing additional prejudicial treatment."<ref name="Lifelong" /> In 1997, they published a letter entitled ''Always Our Children'', as a pastoral message to parents of gay and bisexual children with guidelines for pastoral ministers. Reiterating the church's opposition to homosexuality, it told parents not to break off contact with a gay or bisexual son or daughter; they should instead look for appropriate counseling both for the child and for themselves.<ref name="always" /><ref name="cornwell-breaking" />{{rp|131}} Gay Catholics, the bishops said, should be allowed to participate actively in the Christian community and, if living chastely, hold leadership positions.<ref name="always" /><ref name="cornwell-breaking" />{{rp|131}} It also noted "an importance and urgency" to minister to those with AIDS, especially considering the impact it had on the gay community.<ref name="always" /><ref name="Siker2006" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Raymond A. |title=Encyclopedia of AIDS: A Social, Political, Cultural, and Scientific Record of the HIV Epidemic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ats3BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA164|access-date=21 May 2020|date=27 August 1998|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-45754-9 |page=164}}</ref> | |||
The letter condemned physical and verbal violence against homosexual persons,<ref>Jeffrey Siker, ''Homosexuality and Religion''</ref>{{rp|195}} but asserted that condemnation of violence did not mean that the homosexual orientation was good or neutral or that homosexual sexual acts should be permitted.<ref name="Congregationfor"/><ref name="Scarnecchia 2010"/>{{rp|222}} Its claims that accepting and legalizing homosexual behaviour leads to violence were seen as controversially blaming gay people for homophobic violence and encouraging homophobic violence.<ref name="Siker"/>{{rp|195}}<ref name="McNeill4">McNeill, , 4th ed.</ref> The letter also said that accepting homosexual acts as morally equivalent to married heterosexual acts was harmful to the family and society and warned bishops to be on guard against, and not to support, Catholic organizations not upholding the Church's doctrine on homosexuality, groups which the letter said were not really Catholic.<ref name="allen-benedict"/>{{rp|201}}<ref name="Congregationfor"></ref><ref name="Scarnecchia 2010"/>{{rp|223}} It was referring to LGBT and LGBT-accepting Catholic groups such as ] and ],<ref name="allen-benedict"/>{{rp|201}} and resulted in the exclusion of Dignity.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Gay religion |chapter=The gay god of the city: the emergence of the gay and lesbian ethnic parish |publisher=Rowman Altamira |first=Leonard Norman |last=Primiano |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=dTZuAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 |page=10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Roman Catholicism in America |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=s-nEky7gs_wC&pg=PA178 |first=Chester |last=Gillis |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2013 |page=178}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Gay and Lesbian Rights: A Question - Sexual Ethics Or Social Justice? |publisher=Rowman and Littlefield |year=1996 |first=Richard |last=Peddicord |page=viii |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=GaDXSkJX-3EC&pg=PR8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=What's Left? Liberal American Catholics|year=1999 |publisher=Indiana University Press|chapter=Resisting Traditional Catholic Sexual Teaching: Pro-Choice Advocacy and Homosexual Support Groups |last=Weaver|first=Mary Jo |page=100 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=7wuAo7LRdzwC&pg=PA100}}</ref> Referring to the ],<ref>{{cite book|last=Dillon |first=Michele |title=Catholic Identity |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-52163959-0|page=59}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Kowalewski |first=Mark R. |title=All Things to All People |year=1994 |publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-79141778-2|page=47}}</ref> the letter, McNeill writes, blamed AIDS on gay rights activists and gay-accepting mental health professionals:<ref name="McNeill4"/> "Even when the practice of homosexuality may seriously threaten the lives and well-being of a large number of people, its advocates remain undeterred and refuse to consider the magnitude of the risks involved".<ref name="Homosexual Persons - July 1992"/> ] called this comment "extraordinary for its lack of compassion"<ref>John L. Allen 2005, p. 202</ref> and added that "some of clauses read chillingly like comparable church documents produced in Europe in the 1930s".<ref>John L. Allen 2005, p. 203</ref> | |||
Bishops around the world have held diocesan events with the goal of reaching out to gay Catholics and ministering to them, and more have spoken publicly about the need to love and welcome them into the church. ] asked "the bishops to support, with the means at their disposal, the development of appropriate forms of pastoral care for homosexual persons.”<ref name="msjc" /> Several assemblies of the ] have struck similar themes, while maintaining that same-sex sexual activity is sinful and that same-sex marriage cannot be permitted.<ref name="Gehring" /> In 2018, in a move regarded as a sign of respect to the community,<ref name="Gehring" /> the Vatican used the acronym LGBT for the first time in an official document.<ref name="Barnes" /> In several public statements, Francis has emphasised the need to accept, welcome, and accompany LGBT people,<ref name=":20">{{Cite web |last=Spadaro SJ |first=Antonio |author-link=Antonio Spadaro |date=30 September 2013 |title=A Big Heart Open to God: An interview with Pope Francis |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2013/09/30/big-heart-open-god-interview-pope-francis |access-date=15 January 2024 |website=] |language=en |quote=In Buenos Aires I used to receive letters from homosexual persons who are ‘socially wounded’ because they tell me that they feel like the church has always condemned them. But the church does not want to do this.}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |date=2 October 2016 |title=In-flight press conference of His Holiness Pope Francis from Azerbaijan to Rome |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2016/october/documents/papa-francesco_20161002_georgia-azerbaijan-conferenza-stampa.html |access-date=15 January 2024 |website=]}}</ref><ref name=":22">{{Cite web |last=Bordoni |first=Linda |date=9 May 2022 |title=Pope to LGBT Catholics: 'God is Father who does not disown any of his children' |url=https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2022-05/pope-letter-fr-martin-lgtb-outreach-questions.html |access-date=23 January 2024 |website=] |language=en}}</ref> including LGBT children.<ref name=":14">{{Cite web |date=26 August 2018 |title=Apostolic Visit to Ireland: Press Conference on the return flight from Dublin to Rome (Papal flight, 26 August 2018) |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2018/august/documents/papa-francesco_20180826_irlanda-voloritorno.html |access-date=23 January 2024 |website=]}}</ref><ref name=":12" /> | |||
In a statement released in July 1992, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith expanded on the letter, and stated that discrimination against gay people in certain areas, such as selecting adoptive or foster parents or in hiring teachers, coaches, or military servicemembers, is not unjust.<ref name="Homosexual Persons - July 1992"/> | |||
The 2014 ] and ] concerned themselves in part with "accepting and valuing their sexual orientation" and place in Catholic communities, "without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony."<ref name="Relatio" /> The reports of the synods were noted for their unusually mild language towards gay people,<ref name="Coleridge" /><ref name="playing" /><ref name="dismayed" /><ref name="stuns" /><ref name="compassion" /> such as the lack of use of phrases such as "intrinsically disordered."<ref name="Advocate" /> They also reiterated the church's opposition to same-sex marriage and suggested outreach towards gay people.<ref name="integrate" /> | |||
===Local perspectives=== | |||
Beginning in the 1960s, a number of organizations have formed to minister to LGBT people. Organizations such as ], ] and ], which advocate for the rights of LGBT Catholics and dissent from Church teaching, and ], which encourages Catholics with same-sex attraction to live chastely and accept Church teaching, were established in the United States in response to the push within the United States for greater recognition within the church for ] and lesbian women. Courage also has a ministry geared towards the relatives and friends of gay people called Encourage.<ref name="Encourage" /> Courage is a recognized apostolate of the Church, while DignityUSA and New Ways Ministry have both been censured by the ] of the American Catholic Church. | |||
====The Netherlands==== | |||
The ] first published in 1966 was the first post-Vatican II Catholic catechism, was an expression of the magisterium of the Dutch bishops, who commissioned and authorized it. The 1973 edition, issued after a Vatican review of the original text, dealt with the issue of homosexuality: "It is not the fault of the individual if he or she is not attracted to the other sex. The causes of homosexuality are unknown . . . .The very sharp strictures of Scripture on homosexual practices (Gen. 1; Rom. 1) must be read in their context." | |||
==Dissent from church teaching== | |||
====United Kingdom==== | |||
{{main|Dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality}} | |||
There have been practical and ministerial disagreements within the clergy, hierarchy, and laity of the Catholic Church concerning the church's position on homosexuality. Some Catholics and Catholic groups have sought to adopt an approach they consider to be more inclusive.<ref name="Kuruvilla" /><ref name="sept82" /><ref name="boulder" /><ref name="debate" /> Dissenters argue that the prohibition on extramarital sex emphasizes the physical dimension of the act at the expense of higher moral, personal and spiritual goals{{sfn|Allen|2013|p=125}} and that the practice of total, lifelong sexual denial risks personal isolation.{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=}} Other arguments include that the teaching violates "the truth of God's unconditional love for all people", and drives "young people away from the Church".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Salzman |first1=Todd A. |last2=Lawler |first2=Michael G. |title=Human Dignity and Homosexuality in Catholic Teaching: An Anthropological Disconnect between Truth and Love? |journal=Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society |date=2020 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=119–139 |doi=10.30965/23642807-00601008|doi-access=free}}</ref> Opponents argue that it is preferable to believe that this element of church teaching is mistaken.<ref name="McNeill4" /> The opinion of lay Catholics tends to be more supportive of gay marriage than the hierarchy.<ref name="Tausch" /> | |||
Richard Scorer wrote that the leadership of the English Church has been "notably less homophobic than the Vatican", and that, in 1992, on publication of a statement by Cardinal Ratzinger, which Scorer said justified discrimination against homosexuals, Cardinal ] was said to be "appalled by the language and tone of the document" and privately distanced himself.<ref name="Richard Scorer 2014, p20">Richard Scorer, "Betrayed: The English Catholic Church and the sex abuse crisis", Biteback, 2014, p20</ref> | |||
Upwards of 70 people have been fired from jobs at Catholic schools or universities because of their marriages to partners of the same sex<ref name="Gehring" /><ref name="huffingtonpost.com" /><ref name="deja" /><ref name="chaput" /><ref name="wrestle" /> or, in one case, support for LGBT rights campaigns.<ref name="fired" /><ref name="huffingtonpost.com" /> When ] refused to fire a teacher after he publicly entered into a gay marriage, ] designated the school as no longer Catholic; the school has appealed his decision.<ref name="burke" /> As of 2019, the ] has temporarily suspended the bishop's decree.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Herron|first=Arika|title=Vatican temporarily suspends Indianapolis archbishop's decision on Brebeuf Jesuit|url=https://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2019/09/23/brebeuf-jesuit-vatican-temporarily-suspends-indianapolis-archdiocese-suspension-over-gay-teacher/2421202001/|access-date=2023-08-17|website=The Indianapolis Star|language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
In April 1997, Hume issued ''A note on the teaching of the Catholic Church concerning homosexuality''. It stated that the Church recognises the dignity and right to respectful treatment of all people and does not see their "objective disorder" of homosexual people as making them wholly disordered. It also said that sexual activity ought only to take place within an opposite-sex marriage and said that the Church cannot "acknowledge amongst fundamental human rights a proposed right to acts which she teaches are morally wrong."<ref name=Hume></ref> | |||
In response to church policy in the area of safe-sex education, AIDS, and gay rights, some gay rights activists have protested both inside and outside of Catholic churches, sometimes disrupting Masses. This includes at the ] in Washington,<ref name="arrested" /><ref name="sash" /> at an ordination of priests at the ] in Boston,<ref name="pilot" /><ref name="law" /><ref name="crimson" /> and during Mass at ] in New York<ref name="sash" /><ref name="arrested" /><ref name="pilot" /> where they ].<ref name="Wages" /><ref name="rude" /> Others have splattered paint on churches<ref name="soble" /> and drenched an archbishop with water.<ref name="femen" /> In 1998, ] died after setting himself on fire outside ] to protest the church's position on homosexuality.<ref name="fire" /> | |||
====United States==== | |||
In 1997, the US Catholic Bishops Conference published its letter, "Always our children", as a pastoral message to parents of gay and bisexual children with guidelines for pastoral ministers. It told parents not to break off contact with a gay or bisexual son or daughter; they should instead look for appropriate counseling both for the child and for themselves. The letter said that, while homosexual orientation is not sinful, homosexual activity is immoral, but gay people must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity, and allowed to participate actively in the Christian community, and even, if living chastely, to hold leadership positions.<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref name="cornwell-breaking"/>{{rp|131}} | |||
On 9 September 2022, over 80% of German bishops at the ] supported a document calling for a "re-evaluation of homosexuality" and for making changes to the Catechism.<ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.pillarcatholic.com/german-synodal-way-members-back-permanent-synodal-council/ |title = German synodal way members back permanent 'synodal council' | first = Luke | last = Coppen | date = September 12, 2022 | publisher = The Pillar | accessdate = September 16, 2022}}</ref><ref name="synodalerweg"></ref><ref name="fnp"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220915173018/https://www.fnp.de/hessen/deutsche-katholiken-wollen-neubewertung-homosexualitaet-zr-91777063.html |date=15 September 2022 }}, 9. September 2022 (German)</ref><ref name="zeit">, 9. September 2022 (German)</ref>{{efn|Supporting bishops are archbishop ] from ], bishop ] from ], bishop ], from ], archbishop ] from ], archbishop ] from ], bishop ] from ], bishop ] from ], ] from ], bishop ] from ], bishop ] from ], bishop ] from ], bishop ] from ], bishop ] from ], bishop ] from ], bishop ] from ], bishop ] from ], bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ], auxiliary bishop ] from ] and auxiliary bishop ] from ].<ref name="Namentliches">, September 15, 2022 (German)</ref>}} | |||
== History of Church teaching on homosexuality == | |||
On March 11, 2023, the Synodal Path with support of over 80 percentage of German Roman Catholic bishops allowed ] in all 27 German Roman Catholic diocese.<ref>, March 11, 2023</ref><ref></ref><ref>, March 11, 2023</ref> | |||
==Catholic organizations== | |||
===Church Fathers=== | |||
{{Further|Outreach Catholic}} | |||
The ], a Catholic fraternal organisation, has contributed over $14 million, one of the largest amounts in the United States, to political campaigns against ].<ref name="darrin" /> The ] of North America has stated that science "counters the ] that same-sex attraction is genetically predetermined and unchangeable, and offers hope for prevention and treatment."<ref name="cure" /> The Church, however, teaches that sexual orientation is not a choice.<ref name="CurranCurran1998" /><ref name="Martin" /> ], president of the ], has been criticized for describing the church child sex abuse crisis as a "homosexual" problem rather than a "pedophilia" problem.<ref name="Graham" /> Donohue based his claim on the fact that most of the incidents involved sexual contact between men and boys rather than between men and girls. | |||
] is a ] affiliated Catholic media site dedicated to LGBT advocacy. The site was founded by Fr. ] SJ under the affiliation of ], a Jesuit news site. The group hosts a yearly conference to bring LGBT Catholics and allies together in hopes to further dialogue between the Church and LGBT faithful. The site itself hosts a myriad of difference resources, news, and advocacy projects.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Home |url=https://outreach.faith/ |access-date=2023-12-08 |website=Outreach |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
The Christian tradition has generally proscribed any and all noncoital genital activities, whether engaged in by couples or individuals, regardless of whether they were of the same or different sex.<ref name="Siker"/>{{rp|193}} | |||
==Homosexuality in relation to clergy== | |||
The Catholic Church's position specifically on homosexuality developed from the teachings of the ], which was in stark contrast to Greek and Roman attitudes towards same-sex relations including the "(usually erotic) homosexual relationship between an adult male and a pubescent or adolescent male" that is called ].<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref> | |||
{{Main|Homosexual clergy in the Catholic Church|Gay bishops#Roman Catholic Church}}Homosexual clergy, and homosexual activity by clergy, are not exclusively modern phenomena, but rather date back centuries.<ref name="halsall" /> ] estimated the percentage of gay priests in 2000 to be 23–58%, suggesting more homosexual men (active and non-active) within the Catholic priesthood than within society at large.<ref name="homosexualpriest" /> | |||
Instructions from Vatican bodies on admitting gay men to the priesthood have varied over time. In the 1960s chaste gay men were allowed but in 2005, a ] banned gay men "while profoundly respecting the persons in question."<ref name="Richard Scorer 2014, p20" /><ref name="Criteria" /> | |||
What appears to be the earliest Christian document outside the New Testament, the '']'', begins a list of grave sins with: "You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty ..."<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref> David F. Greenberg gives it as one example of the early Christian writings of the first two centuries that were "unequivocably opposed to male prostitution and pederasty—probably the most visible forms of homosexuality in their time".<ref></ref> | |||
Although homosexuality was at variance with Catholic teaching during the Middle Ages, official penalties for homosexual behavior within the clergy, both by the church and temporal authorities, were rarely codified or enforced.<ref name="LiQ96" /> Historian ] noted that several bishops in the ] were thought by their contemporaries to have had gay relationships, and noted a potentially romantic or sexual tone to the correspondence of others with "passionate" male friends.{{sfn|Boswell|1980|p=211, 214-215}} Some other historians disagree, and say that this correspondence represents friendship.<ref name="Classen" /> Although homosexual acts have been consistently condemned by the Catholic Church, some senior members of the clergy have been found or alleged to have had homosexual relationships, including ], ], ], and ].<ref name="natrev" /><ref name="Bischof" /><ref name="derstandard" /><ref name="Deveney" /> Some popes are documented to have been homosexual or to have had male sexual partners, including ], ], ], ], ] and ].<ref name="Falconi" /><ref name="Burkle" /> | |||
] (2nd century) says of the Greek accounts of their gods that "some transformed themselves into the likeness of animals to seduce the race of mortal women, and some polluted themselves by lying with males".<ref></ref><ref>"The Syriac version emphasizes their dislike of homosexuality" ().</ref> What was condemned was not a personal orientation but the performance of a homosexual act.<ref></ref> | |||
] (d. between 183 and 185) wrote: "To the unbelieving, who despise and disobey the truth but obey unrighteousness, when they are full of adulteries and fornication and homosexual acts and greed and lawless idolatry, there will come wrath and anger, tribulation and anguish, and finally eternal fire."<ref> (Lexington Books 2000 ISBN 978-0-73910132-2), p. 59</ref> | |||
] (c. 150 – c. 215) rebuked heathens for worshipping gods who indulged in debauching of boys.<ref></ref> ] (c. 260/265 – 339/340) wrote of God "having forbidden all unlawful marriage, and all unseemly practice, and the union of women with women and men with men".<ref></ref> | |||
] (329 or 330 – 379) wrote: "He who is guilty of unseemliness with males will be under discipline for the same time as adulterers."<ref></ref> ] (c. 347–407), speaking of {{Bibleverse||Romans|1:26–27|ESV}}, declared: "All of these affections then were vile, but chiefly the mad lust after males; for the soul is more the sufferer in sins, and more dishonored than the body in diseases. ... have done an insult to nature itself. And a yet more disgraceful thing than these is it, when even the women seek after these intercourses, who ought to have more shame than men."<ref></ref> | |||
]'s Canonical Letter to Letoius of Mytilene (Epist. canonica 4), (390) prescribed the same period of penance for adultery and for "craving for the male".<ref>, p. 220</ref> | |||
In addition, canon law regarding homosexual activity has mainly been shaped through the decrees issued by successive ecclesiastical councils, starting with the Council of Elvira in 305.<ref>Derrick S. Bailey, ''Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition'', London, Longmans, Green, 1955, p185</ref> The condemnation of homosexual practices (in the context of the wider condemnation of "]") is also to be found in regulative literature of the early medieval church, as seen in most of the penitential books from the 6th century onward.<ref name="ReferenceB">Pierre Player (editor), ''Book of Gomorrah: Eleventh century treatise against clerical homosexual practices'', Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1982, notes</ref><ref></ref> By the late Middle Ages, as stated by writers discussing the Spanish Inquisition, the term sodomy had come to cover copulation between males, bestiality, and non-vaginal heterosexual intercourse,<ref name="HaggertyGeorge"/> ], masturbation, ] and anal sex (whether heterosexual or homosexual).<ref name=Perez/> | |||
Derrick S. Bailey writes that, initially, canons against homosexual acts were aimed at ensuring clerical or monastic discipline, and were only widened in the medieval period to include laymen,.<ref>Derrick S. Bailey, ''Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition'', London, Longmans, Green, 1955, cited in </ref>{{qn|date=May 2014|reason=the Fordham site does not quote Bailey}} However, the early 4th-century ] (305-306), the first church council to deal with the issue, excluded from communion, even at the approach of death, anyone (not merely members of the clergy), who had sexual intercourse ('']'') with a boy:<ref name=Elvira></ref><ref></ref><ref> (University of Chicago Press 1990 ISBN 978-0-22630628-5), p. 227, with note that says: "Not too much should be made of the restriction of the prohibition to boys."</ref> | |||
Canons 16 and 17 of the ] (314), which "became the standard source for medieval ecclesiastical literature against homosexuality",<ref name="ReferenceB"/> impose on "those who have been or who are guilty of bestial lusts" penances whose severity varies with the age and married status of the offender, allowing access to communion only at death for a married man over fifty years old (canon 16); and impose a penance also on "defilers of themselves with beasts, being also leprous, who have infected others ".<ref></ref> | |||
In Iberia, the Visigothic ruler Egica of Hispania and Septimania demanded that a church council confront the occurrence of homosexuality in the kingdom. In 693, the ] issued a canon condemning guilty clergy to degradation and exile and laymen to 100 lashes. Egica added an edict imposing the punishment of castration (as already in the secular law promulgated for his kingdom by his predecessor King Chinawith), followed by castration.<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref>Byrne Fone, ''A history of homophobia'', Picador, 2001</ref> | |||
The matter was also dealt with at the ] - in canons 34 and 69 (AD 829),<ref name="ReferenceB"/> (a forgery according to John Boswell<ref></ref> who claimed that "attitudes towards homosexuality grew steadily more tolerant in the early Middle Ages").<ref></ref> Meanwhile canon 15 of the ] (AD 909) warned against "pollution with men or animals".<ref name="ReferenceB"/> | |||
===Medieval and Early Modern period=== | |||
Klaits writes: "From the twelfth century on, outsiders came under increasing verbal and physical attack from churchmen, allied secular authorities, and, particularly in the case of Jews, from the lower strata of the population"; and among "outsiders" he considers Jews, heretics, homosexuals, and magicians as having been among the most important.<ref>Joseph Klaits, ''Servants of Satan: The Age of Witch Hunts'', Indiana University Press, 1985, ISBN 978-0-25335182-1, p. 19</ref> | |||
Clark says that sodomy increasingly began to be identified as the most heinous of sins by authorities of the Catholic Church. In Italy, ] monks would encourage the pious to "hunt out" sodomites and once done to hand them to the Inquisition to be dealt with accordingly. She writes, "These clerical discourses provided a language for secular authorities to condemn sodomy... By persecuting sodomites as well as heretics, the Church strengthened its authority and credibility as a moral arbiter".<ref>Anna Clark, ''Desire: A history of European Sexuality'', pp74-75</ref> | |||
In about 1051 ] wrote the '']'' in which he argued for stricter ecclesiastical punishment for clerics given to "sins against nature".<ref></ref><ref>PETRI DAMIANI Liber gomorrhianus , ad Leonem IX Rom. Pon. in Patrologiae Cursus completus...accurante J.P., MIGNE, series secunda, tomus CXLV, col. 161; CANOSA, Romano, Storia di una grande paura La sodomia a Firenze e a Venezia nel quattrocento, Feltrinelli, Milano 1991, pp.13–14</ref> | |||
Norton says that the ] in 1102 decreed for the first time in English history that homosexual behaviour was a sin.<ref>Rictor Norton, ''My Dear Boy: Gay love letters through the centuries'', Leyland, 1998</ref>{{qn|date=July 2014}} B.R. Burg says on the contrary: "Theologians in the period from the sixth to the fourteenth century frequently referred to sodomy as either the most serious sexual sin or one of the gravest such sins".<ref></ref> Both he and Albert R. Jonson say that homosexual activity is frequently mentioned in the penitential books as a sinful act for which an appropriate penance is to be applied.<ref></ref> | |||
The Council of London decreed, in its canons 28 and 29, that "those who commit the shameful act of sodomy, and especially those who of their own free will take pleasure in doing so, were condemned by a weighty anathema until by penitence and confession they should show themselves worthy of absolution"; and that any cleric found guilty be deposed and that any layman "be deprived of his legal status and dignity in the whole realm of England".<ref name=Neill></ref> It was at the urging of Archbishop ] that the council was called and that it decreed that the people be informed of the gravity of homosexual activity and their obligation to confess it as a sin.<ref name=Neill/> Anselm, as archbishop, advised the Council that homosexuality was widespread and few men were embarrassed by it or had even been aware it was a serious matter. Confessors were urged to take account of the ignorance of those confessing sodomy: people need to be reminded of its gravity and their obligation to confess. Nevertheless, Anselm deferred publication - arguing more time was needed for clarification. He recommended confessors to take into account mitigating factors such as age and marital status before prescribing penance; and counselling was preferred to punishment.<ref>Rictor Norton, ''My Dear Boy: Gay love letters through the centuries'', Leyland, 1998</ref> John Boswell argues that they were never published at all.<ref></ref>*], Decretum included the decrees of the 1102 Council of London (1140). | |||
In 1179, ] presided over the ] which decreed (canon 11) that all those guilty of sodomy be removed from office or confined to penitential life in a monastery, if clergy; and be strictly excommunicated, if laity: "''Let all who are found guilty of that unnatural vice for which the wrath of God came down upon the sons of disobedience and destroyed the five cities with fire, if they are clerics be expelled from the clergy or confined in monasteries to do penance; if they are laymen they are to incur excommunication and be completely separated from the society of the faithful.''"<ref></ref> | |||
This was followed by canon 14 of the ] in 1215. This stated that if a priest suspended for unchastity of any kind - especially the vice that "on account of which the anger of God came from heaven upon the children of unbelief" (that is sodomy) - dared to celebrate Mass then he was to be deposed permanently from the priesthood.<ref>"That the morals and general conduct of clerics may be better let all strive to live chastely and virtuously, particularly those in sacred orders, guarding against every vice of desire, especially , so that in the sight of Almighty God they may perform their duties with a pure heart and chaste body. But lest the facility to obtain pardon be an incentive to do wrong, we decree that whoever shall be found to indulge in the vice of incontinence, shall, in proportion to the gravity of his sin, be punished in accordance with the canonical statutes, which we command to be strictly and rigorously observed, so that he whom divine fear does not restrain from evil, may at least be withheld from sin by a temporal penalty. If therefore anyone suspended for this reason shall presume to celebrate the divine mysteries, let him not only be deprived of his ecclesiastical benefices but for this twofold offense let him be forever deposed."</ref><ref></ref> | |||
By the early 13th century (time of the Fourth Lateran Council) the Church accepted that "secular authorities, as well as clergy, should be allowed to impose penalties on 'sodomites' for having had sexual relations", and by the end of this period, "homophobic discourse became insitutionalised ,.. Sodomites were now demons as well as sinners.".<ref>William E. Burgwinkle, ''Sodomy, Masculinity and Law in Medieval Literature'', University of Cambridge, 2004, p32-33</ref> Civil authorities were in fact already trying the crime of sodomy in their own courts. They applied punishments very different from those that the Church applied, such as excommunication and deposition from the clerical state. They followed Roman civil law, which prescribed death by burning for those found guilty of sodomy.<ref name=SBS/> In 1232, ] established the ] which investigated claims of sodomitical acts when, in 1451, ] enabled it to prosecute men who practice sodomy. Handed over to the civil authorities, those condemned were frequently, in accordance with civil law, burned.<ref name=SBS>|"Bologna, parts of Portugal and other regions embracing Roman civic law prescribed death by fire for convicted sodomites" - </ref> | |||
In the '']'', ] held that "the unnatural vice" is the greatest of the sins of lust.<ref></ref> In his '']'', traditionally dated to 1264, he argued against what he called "the error of those who say that there is no more sin in the emission of the ''semen'' than in the ejection of other superfluous products from the body" by saying that, after murder, which destroys an existing human being, disordinate emission of semen to the preclusion of generating a human being seems to come second.<ref></ref> | |||
R.I. Moore reports that, in 1424, ] preached for three days in Florence, Italy, against homosexuality and other forms of lust, calling for sodomites to be ostracized, and these sermons alongside measures by other clergy of the time strengthened opinion against homosexuals and encouraged the authorities to increase the measures of persecution.<ref>R. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, p138</ref> | |||
In 1478, with the papal bull ''Exigit Sinceras Devotionis Affectus'', ] acceded to the request of ] and ], granting them exclusive authority to name the inquisitors in their kingdoms. The ] thus replaced the ] which had been set up under direct papal control, and transferred it in Spain to civil control. In 1482, in response to complaints by relatives of the first victims, Sixtus wrote that he had not intended his grant to be abused in that way. However, strong pressure brought to bear on him prevented him from revoking it.<ref> (Profile Books 2006 ISBN 978-1-86197622-2), pp. 27-28</ref> | |||
] | |||
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Spain was therefore under the control of its monarchs and the initial direction of the ] friar Tomas de Torquemada. Mark D. Jordan says that it seems to have at first been reluctant to take on responsibility for trying those accused of sodomy, and that the Suprema (the governing body) ruled in 1509 that such cases were for the secular courts, which already punished sodomy with death. However, in 1524 the Suprema requested papal authorisation to prosecute sodomites. ] granted permission but only within the Kingdom of Aragon and on condition that trials be conducted according to the civil laws, not the standard inquisitorial procedure.<ref name="HaggertyGeorge">Haggerty, George E. (2000). Gay histories and cultures: an encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis, pp. 470-471, retrieved at: http://books.google.com/books?id=L9Mj7oHEwVoC&pg=PA471&dq=Haggerty+%22already+a+capital+crime%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xBb6UvuXJ8a07QbhpYHwCg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Haggerty%20%22already%20a%20capital%20crime%22&f=false</ref> The Pope refused the request of King ] to extend the authority of the Spanish Inquisition to conducting such trials in the rest of Spain.<ref name=Perez> (Profile Books 2006 ISBN 978-1-86197622-2), pp. 91-92</ref> | |||
Within Aragon and its dependent territories, the number of individuals that the Spanish Inquisition tried for sodomy, a broad-ranging crime, whose meaning has been explained above,<ref name="HaggertyGeorge"/><ref name=Perez/> between 1570 and 1630 was over 800<ref>Anna Clark, ''Desire: A history of European Sexuality'', p83</ref> or nearly a thousand.<ref name="HaggertyGeorge"/> In Spain, those whom the Spanish Inquisition convicted and had executed "by burning without the benefit of strangulation" were about 150.<ref>Diarmuid MacCulloch, ''Reformation:Europe's House Divided'', Penguin, 2004, p623</ref> The Inquisition was harsh to sodomizers (more so for those committing bestiality than homosexuality), but tended to restrict death by burning only to those aged over twenty-five. Minors were normally whipped and sent to the galleys. Mildness was also shown to clergy, who were always a high proportion of those arrested.<ref>Henry Kamen, ''The Spanish Inquisition: An historical revision'', p152</ref> In fact, conviction and execution for sodomy was easier to obtain from the civil courts in other parts of Spain than from the tribunals of the Inquisition in Aragon, and there executions for sodomy were much more numerous.<ref></ref> After 1633, where the Spanish Inquisition had jurisdiction for sodomy, it ceased treating it as requiring execution, and imposed lesser penalties in cases brought before it.<ref name="HaggertyGeorge"/> | |||
The Portuguese Inquisition was established in 1536; and in 1539 ], Archbishop of Braga (later made cardinal) became Grand Inquisitor. (An earlier appointment as Portuguese Grand Inquisitor was Friar Diogo da Silva.)<ref></ref> It received 4,419 denunciations against individuals accused of sodomy, of whom 447 were subjected to a formal trial, 30 were, in accordance with the pre-1536 civil laws enacted under Kings ] and ], burnt at the stake, and many others were sent to the galleys or to exile, temporary or permanent.<ref name="HaggertyGeorge"/> | |||
In England, until ], while still a member of the Roman Catholic Church, enacted the ], as part of his campaign to break the power of the Catholic Church in England,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thedrummersrevenge.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/reflections-on-bna-part-6-british-law/|title=Reflections on BNA, part 6: British Law|first=Hamish|date=25 July 2007|work=The Drummer's Revenge|accessdate=22 November 2013}}</ref> the accused were tried by church courts, which almost never punished homosexual behaviour.<ref name=SBS/> | |||
Although homosexuality was not directly discussed at the ], it did commission the drawing up of a ] (following the successful lead of some Protestants) which stated: "Neither fornicators nor adulterers, nor the effeminate nor sodomites shall possess the kingdom of God."<ref>(electronic easily searchable one-page edition; for a printed book, see )</ref> | |||
===Modern age=== | |||
Neither the ] nor the ] directly discussed the issue of homosexualty, nor did they alter the judgement of earlier councils. Homosexuality has received no mention in papal ] except for ]'s '']'' of 1993, which "specifically proclaims the intrinsic evil of the homosexual condition"<ref name="allen-benedict"/>{{rp|207}} rejecting the view of some theologians who questioned the basis on which the church condemns as morally unacceptable "direct sterilization, autoeroticism, pre-marital sexual relations, homosexual relations and artificial insemination".<ref></ref> However, homosexual activity was frequently referred to as ''crimen pessimum'' (the worst crime).<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref>For instance in documents of , , , , </ref> including that codified in 1917.<ref>; ; </ref> | |||
Michael Bronski has written: "In Western culture, homosexual activity was first categorized as a sin. With the rise of materialism and the decline of religion, it became a transgression against the social, not the moral order: a crime."<ref></ref> However, the Catholic Church has continued to categorize it as a sin.<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref name=Davies/> | |||
==Dissent from Church teaching== | |||
A number of Catholics and Catholic groups oppose the position of the Catholic Church and seek to change it.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pope-denounces-gay-marriage-annual-xmas-message-article-1.1225960 |work=NY Daily News |date=December 22, 2012 |title=Pope Benedict denounces gay marriage during his annual Christmas message |first=Carol |last=Kuruvilla |location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E6D71138F935A1575AC0A964948260 | work=The New York Times | title=AROUND THE NATION; Catholic Group Provokes Debate on Homosexuals | date=26 September 1982 | accessdate=4 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://wayback.archive.org/web/20110708091658/http://www.boulderdailycamera.com/livingarts/religion/25pgay.html |title=Boulder DailyCamera.com: Colorado, News, Business, Sports, Homes, Jobs, Cars & Information |publisher=Boulder Daily Camera |accessdate=2011-12-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/2008/07/08/wyd-site-limits-gay-debate/533 |title=WYD site limits gay debate | Star Online |publisher=Starobserver.com.au |accessdate=2011-12-05}}</ref> Critics make the general argument that The Church's line on homosexuality emphasises the physical dimension of the act at the expense of higher moral, personal and spiritual goals.<ref>John J. Allen, ''The Catholic Church: What everyone needs to know'', USA, 2013, p.125</ref> Gay and lesbian Catholics also feel that the practice of total, life-long sexual denial risks results in personal isolation.<ref name="Siker"/>{{rp|194}} ] writes that since gay people experience their sexual orientation as innately created, to believe that is a tendency towards evil would require believing in a sadistic God, and that it is preferable to believe that that element of church teaching is mistaken than that God behaves in such a way.<ref name="McNeill4"/> | |||
===Clergy=== | |||
{{See also|Homosexuality and Roman Catholic priests|Gay bishops}} | |||
There have also been some practical and ministerial disagreements within the clergy and hierarchy of the Catholic Church. | |||
Two of the best-known advocates for a more accepting position on homosexuality within the Catholic fold have been the ] priest Fr. Robert Nugent, and the School Sister of Notre Dame nun ], who established ] in 1977<ref name="John J. Allen 2013, p.181">John J. Allen, ''The Catholic Church: What everyone needs to know'', USA, 2013, p.181</ref> This was in response to the Bishop of Brooklyn's invitation to reach out in “new ways” to lesbian and gay Catholics. In 1981, New Ways Ministry held its first national symposium on homosexuality and the Catholic Church, but Archbishop ] of Washington, D.C. wrote to Catholic bishops and communities, asking them not to support the event. Despite this, more than fifty Catholic groups endorsed the program. In 1983 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith attempted unsuccessfully to block publication of Nugent's book, ''A Challenge to Love: Gay and Lesbian Catholics in the Church'', although Cardinal Ratzinger did succeed in forcing Bishop Walter Sullivan of Richmond to remove his name from it.<ref name="allen-benedict"/>{{rp|200}} In May 1999 both Nugent and Grammick were formally disciplined when the Congregation imposed lifetime bans on any pastoral work involving gay people, declaring that the positions they advanced "do not faithfully convey the clear and constant teaching of the Catholic Church," and "have caused confusion among the Catholic people".<ref></ref> The Vatican move made Nugent and Gramick "folk heroes in liberal circles", where official teaching is seen as outdated and lacking compassion.<ref name="John J. Allen 2013, p.181"/> | |||
Similarly, the American bishops ] of ] and Matthew Clark of ] were criticized for their association with New Ways Ministry, and their distortion of the theological concept of the "Primacy of Conscience" as an alternative to the actual teaching of the Catholic Church.<ref>, (Catholic World News, 20 March 1997)</ref> Furthermore, the insistence of ] to preach a message about homosexuality contrary to that of the official church teaching is largely considered to be one of the factors that led to him being removed from his See of Evraux, France, in 1995. While bishop he had blessed a homosexual union in a "service of welcoming", after the couple requested it in view of their imminent death from AIDS. | |||
<ref>'''', (BBC News, 2 July 2000)</ref> | |||
In 1976, John McNeill, an American ] and co-founder of Dignity, published ''The Church and the Homosexual'', which challenged the Church's prohibition of same-sex activity. It argued for a change in Church teaching and that homosexual relationships should be judged by the same standard of heterosexual ones. The work had received permission from McNeill's Jesuit superiors prior to printing. In 1977, the permission was retracted at the order of the Vatican, and McNeill was ordered by Cardinal ] not to write or speak publicly about homosexuality. In a statement McNeill responded that "gay men most likely to act out their sexual needs in a unsafe, compulive way, and therefore expose themselves to the HIV virus, are precisely those who have internalised the self-hatred that their religions impose on them.". In 1986, the Jesuit order subsequently dismissed him for "pertinacious disobedience" from the order and effectively the priesthood.<ref name="allen-benedict"/>{{rp|200}}<ref>{{cite news|date=18 June 2012|work=National Catholic Reporter|url=http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/new-documentary-depicts-jesuits-struggle-lgbt-rights|title=New documentary depicts Jesuit's struggle for LGBT rights |author=Jamie Manson }}</ref> | |||
In 1977, a collective theological study on human sexuality was published,<ref>A.Kosnik and others, ''Human Sexuality. New Directions in Catholic Thought'', Search Press, London 1977, pp. 219-229</ref> after being commissioned in 1972 by the Catholic Theological Society of America, which however did not approve the study, after members of its board of directors criticized its scholarship.<ref name=Curran>, Curran, p. 26</ref><ref name=Weigel>, Weigel, pp. 73–74</ref> In his ''Breaking Faith: The Pope, the People and the Future of Catholicism'', John Cornwell says the theology contained within the work extended the Vatican II focus on the procreative and unitive purposes of marital sexuality, to emphasis the creative and integrative aspects; and that it criticised the "oversimplification of the natural law theory of St. Thomas", and argued that "Homosexuals enjoy the same rights and incur the same obligations as the heterosxual majority."<ref name="cornwell-breaking"/>{{rp|129}} The book showed that dissent from the Church's teaching on sexuality was common among United States theologians. Reaction to its publication showed that the dissent was not unanimous, even within the Catholic Theological Society of America itself.<ref name=Curran/><ref name=Weigel/> | |||
In 1984, Cardinal Ratzinger asked Archbishop Gerety of ] to withdraw his ] from ''Sexual Morality'' by Philip S. Keane, and the ] ceased its publication. Keane had stated that homosexuality should not be considered absolutely immoral but only "if the act was placed without proportionate reason". The Catholic tradition had suffered 'historical distortions', and should be "ever open to better expressions".<ref name="allen-benedict"/>{{rp|200}} | |||
In a letter of 25 July 1986 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith rebuked moral theologian ] for his published work and informed the ] in Washington that he would "no longer be considered suitable nor eligible to exercise the function of a professor of Catholic theology". Cardinal ], the Prefect of the Congregation, expressed the hope that "this regrettable, but necessary, outcome to the Congregation's study might move you to reconsider your dissenting positions and to accept in its fullness the teaching of the Catholic Church".<ref></ref> Curran had been critical of a number of the Catholic Church's teachings, including his contention that homosexual acts in the context of a committed relationship were good for homosexual people. This event "widened the gulf" between the Catholic episcopacy and academia in the United States.<ref name="cornwell-winter"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=benedicts_edicts |title=Benedict's Edicts |publisher=Prospect.org |accessdate=2011-12-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=15 April 1987|work=Los Angeles Times|url=http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-15/news/mn-235_1_catholic-university|title=The Nation}}</ref><ref>America Magazine. http://americamagazine.org/issue/100/charles-curran-case</ref> | |||
Also in 1986 Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of ] was required to transfer authority concernng ministry to homosexuals to his auxiliary bishop. Hunthausen had earlier been investigated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for allowing Dignity, the association for gay Catholics, to hold Mass in Seattle cathedral on the grounds that: "They're Catholics too. They need a place to pray". "Bishops had been put on notice that pastoral ministry to homosexuals, unless it is based on clear condemnation of homosexual conduct, invites serious trouble with Rome".<ref name="allen-benedict"/>{{rp|201}} In the same year Cardinal Ratzinger wrote to Bishop Matthew Clark of Rochester, in the US instructing him to remove his imprimatur from a book aimed at parents talking to children, ''Parents Talk Love: A Catholic Handbook on Sexuality'' written by Father Matthew Kawiak and Susan Sullivan, and which included information on homosexuality.<ref name="allen-benedict"/>{{rp|200}} | |||
], a priest formerly a member of the ] and in the United Kingdom, has also argued that the teaching of the ] '']'' regarding gay people is incompatible with the Gospel, and states that "it cannot in fact be the teaching of the Church."<ref>{{cite web|last=Alison |first=James |url=http://www.courage.org.uk/articles/unbinding.shtml |title=Unbinding the Gay Conscience |publisher=Courage |date=2002-07-28 |accessdate=2013-02-11}}</ref><ref>''On Being Liked'', (Alison, 2003) pp. 106 - 106</ref> In ''a Question of Truth'', the ] priest Gareth Moore states that: "... there are no good arguments, from either Scripture or natural law, against what have come to be known as homosexual relationships. The arguments put forward to show that such relationships are immoral are bad."<ref>''a Question of Truth'', (Moore, 2003)</ref> | |||
In 2012, a group of sixty-three former Catholic priests in the USA publicly announced their support for ], which would make Washington the nation’s seventh state to legalize marriage between same-sex couples. "''We are uneasy with the aggressive efforts of Catholic bishops to oppose R-74 and want to support the 71 percent of Catholics (Public Religion Research Institute) who support civil marriage for gays as a valid Catholic position,"'' they said in a statement.<ref name=HolyPost/> | |||
More recently, in 2013 in England and Wales, 27 prominent Catholics (mainly theologians and clergy) issued a public letter supporting the Government's move to introduce same-sex civil marriage. The group included Fr ], ], and Fr ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetablet.co.uk/latest-news/4459 |title=Catholic group pledges support for gay marriage |publisher=The Tablet |accessdate=2013-09-02}}</ref> | |||
===Lay opinion=== | |||
====USA==== | |||
In 2003 fewer than 35% of American Catholics supported ]. However, a report by the ] on the situation in 2013 found that during that decade support for same-sex marriage has risen 22 percentage points among Catholics to 57%: 58% among white Catholics, 56% among Hispanic, with white Catholics more likely to offer "strong" support. Among Catholics who were regular churchgoers, 50% supported, 45% opposed.<ref>Robert Jones, Public Religion Research Institute, ''A shifting landscape: A decade of change in american attitudes about same-sex marriage and LGBT issues'', 2014</ref><ref>CathNews USA, 3 March 2013, "Survey showsmajor shift in US Catholics' view of same-sex marriage".</ref> | |||
A 2011 report by the same organisation found that 73% of American Catholics favoured anti-discrimination laws, 63% supported the right of gay people to serve openly in the military, and 60% favoured allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. The report also found Catholics to be more critical than other religious groups about how their church is handling the issue<ref name="USAtoday">{{Cite news |work=USA Today |url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2011/03/gay-marriage-catholic-church-/1 |title=U.S. Catholics break with church on gay relationships |date=March 23, 2011 |first=Cathy Lynn |last=Grossman}}</ref><ref name="PRRI">{{cite web |publisher=Public Religion Research Institute |url=http://www.publicreligion.org/research/?id=509 |title=Catholic Attitudes on Gay and Lesbian Issues: A Comprehensive Portrait from Recent Research |date=March 2011}}</ref> | |||
Catholic support of gay rights is higher than that of other Christian groups and of the general population.<ref name="PRRI"/><ref name="pew">{{cite web |url=http://www.pewforum.org/Gay-Marriage-and-Homosexuality/Religion-and-Attitudes-Toward-Same-Sex-Marriage.aspx |publisher=The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life |title=Religion and Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage |date=February 7, 2012}}</ref> A spokesperson for DignityUSA suggested that Catholic support for gay rights was due to the religion's tradition of social justice, the importance of the family, and better education.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uscatholic.org/church/2012/01/pride-and-prejudice-uneasy-relationship-between-gays-and-lesbians-and-their-church |title=Pride and prejudice: The uneasy relationship between gays and lesbians and their church |publisher=USCatholic.org |date=2012-02-22 |accessdate=2013-09-02}}</ref> | |||
====Elsewhere==== | |||
A 2014 poll commissioned by the US-Spanish-language network ] of more than 2,000 Catholics in 12 countries (Uganda, Spain, the US, Brazil, Argentina, France, Mexico, Italy, Colombia, Poland, the Philippines, and the DRC) found that two thirds of respondents were opposed to the idea of civil same-sex marriage, and around one third was in favour. However, the level of resistance varied between economically developing and developed countries, with 99% of respondents opposed in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo; but a majority in favour in Spain (63%) and the US (54%). Additionally, in all countries a majority of those polled said they did not think the Catholic Church should perform marriages between two people of the same sex - although the results again ranged with support strongest in Spain (43% in favour) to Uganda (99% against).<ref>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/catholics-church-contraception-abortion-survey</ref><ref>http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/growing-number-spanish-catholics-think-their-church-should-marry-gay-couples100214</ref> | |||
In January 2014 the former president of ], ], strongly criticised the Catholic Church's approach to homosexuality in a lecture to the ]: "I don't like my church's attitude to gay people. I don't like 'love the sinner, hate the sin'. If you are the so-called sinner, who likes to be called that?" Her comments were welcomed by the Irish Association of Catholic Priests<ref>8 January 2014, ''The Irish Independent'': http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/mary-mcaleese-praised-for-criticising-church-over-its-attitude-to-gays-29897007.html</ref> | |||
===Movements=== | |||
] was founded in the United States in 1969 as the first group for gay and lesbian Catholics shortly after the ]. It developed from the ministry of Father Patrick Xavier Nidorf, an Augustinian priest. It believes that gay Catholics can "express our sexuality physically, in a unitive manner that is loving, life-giving, and life-affirming". It also seeks to "work for the development of sexual theology leading to the reform of teachings and practices regarding human sexuality, and for the acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender peoples as full and equal members of the one Christ".<ref>DiginityUSA: http://www.dignityusa.org/purpose</ref> In 1980, the Association of Priests in the ] honored the Chicago branch of Dignity as the organization of the year. Meetings were initially held in ] and ], before the organization ultimately became headquartered in ]. It later spread to ]. With the publication in 1987 of "On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons", which instructed bishops not to provide facilities for organizations that did not uphold Catholic teaching on homosexuality, Catholic bishops in Atlanta, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Pensacola and Vancouver immediately excluded Dignity chapters, and "within a few months the organization was unwelcome on church property anywhere".<ref name="allen-benedict"/> | |||
]. The members go up to receive Eucharist]] | |||
The ] covers two separate organizations created by and advanced by practicing LGBT Catholics who believe they should be able to receive ].<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref name="alliance"></ref> It has been most active in the United States, England, and Australia. The Rainbow Sash itself is a strip of a rainbow colored fabric which is worn over the left shoulder and is put on at the beginning of the ]. The members go up to receive ].<ref></ref> If denied, they go back to pews and remain standing,<ref name=alliance/> but if the Eucharist is received then they go back to the pew and kneel in the traditional way.<ref></ref><ref></ref> Cardinal ], Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said that members of the Rainbow Sash Movement disqualified themselves from Communion by making reception of it a display of opposition to the Church's teaching,<ref></ref> while Archbishop ], when head of the ], said that the decision to take Communion lay with individual Catholics as to their state of grace and freedom from mortal sin, but that receiving Communion should not be used as a protest.<ref></ref> The movement in Illinois also planned to hold in a cathedral prayer for legalization of same-sex marriage, an initiative that Bishop Paprocki of Springfield called blasphemous.<ref></ref><ref></ref> | |||
In the ], Quest is a group for lesbian, gay and bisexual Catholics with a purpose to "proclaim the gospel...so as to sustain and increase Christian belief among homosexual men and women." It was established and is led by lay Catholics.<ref>{{cite web|author= |url=http://questgaycatholic.org.uk/about/ |title=Quest " About |publisher=Questgaycatholic.org.uk |date=2013-08-08 |accessdate=2013-09-02}}</ref> It was, however, taken out of the Catholic Directory because of its refusal to make clear its dissociation from active gay sexuality.<ref name="cornwell-breaking"/>{{rp|128}} | |||
There are other groups operating around the world. many organising prayer meetings and retreats and making common cause in their desire to maintain their Catholic faith without hiding their sexuality. Some have called for official recognition of permanent partnerships as an effective way to curb homosexual promiscuity. In Germany there is "Homosexuelle und Kirche" (HuK); In France, "David et Jonathan" (with 25 local branches); In Spain, "Coorinadora Gai-Lesbiana"; In Italy there are a number of groups based in different parts of the country - "Davide e Gionata" (Turin), "Il Guado" (Milan), "La Parola" (Vicenza), "L'Incontro" (Padua), "Chiara e Francesco" (Udine), "L'Archipelago" (Reggio Emilia), "Il Gruppo" (Florence), "Nuova Proposta" (Rome), and "Fratelli dell' Elpis" (Catanaia). In the Netherlands there is a group called "Stichting Dignity Nederland". In Mexico, "Ottra Ovejas". And in South Africa a group called "Pilgrims".<ref name="cornwell-breaking"/>{{rp|128}} | |||
In January 1998 ] set fire to himself in St Peter's square, Rome as a political protest against the Catholic Church's condemnation of homosexuality. He died shortly after from his injuries. | |||
==Defense of Church teaching== | |||
An essay by the French Chief Rabbi ] taking a clear position against gay marriage and denouncing the theory of acquired gender was quoted at length by Pope Benedict XVI in his 1012 Christmas address to the Roman Curia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2012/12/21/97001-20121221FILWWW00363-benoit-xvi-dans-la-lutte-pour-la-famille-l-homme-est-en-jeu.php|title=Benoît XVI: "Dans la lutte pour la famille, l'Homme est en jeu"|work=Le Figaro|date=21 December 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2012/december/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20121221_auguri-curia_en.html|title= Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI on the occasion of Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia|work=Clementine Hall, Vatican City|date=21 December 2012}}</ref> | |||
The ], a Catholic fraternal organisation, have also been active in political campaigns across the United States in the area of ]. The Order contributed over $14 million to help maintain the legal definition of marriage as one man and one woman in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington. Darren Hurwitz (a same-sex marriage proponent) has claimed that the Knights of Columbus has now become "one of the nation's largest funders of discrimination against gays and lesbians."<ref name=Hurwitz>{{cite news | |||
| author = Darren Hurwitz | |||
| title = Knights of Columbus: Standing on the Wrong Side of History, for a Change | |||
| publisher = Huffington Post | |||
| date = 12 March 2013 | |||
| url = http://www.huffingtonpost.com/darrin-hurwitz/knights-of-columbus-stand_b_2854800.html | |||
}}</ref> | |||
===Catholic Medical Association=== | |||
The ] of North America claims that ] "counters the ] that same-sex attraction is genetically predetermined and unchangeable, and offers hope for prevention and treatment."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/homosexuality-cure-masters-johnson/ |title=Can Psychiatrists Really "Cure" Homosexuality? |author=Thomas Maier|date=Apr 22, 2009|accessdate=23 July 2014}}</ref> In their ], a peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on ], homosexuality has been variously defined as "same-sex attraction disorder",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/2050854914Y.0000000018?queryID=23%2F551702|title=Homosexual inclinations and the passions: A Thomistic theory of the psychogenesis of same-sex attraction disorder|author=Robert Loyd Kinney|date=May 2014|accessdate=23 July 2014}}</ref> a "psychological and behavioral condition for which people seek professional care",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/0024363914Z.00000000066?queryID=23%2F551702|title=NARTH response to the WMA statement on natural variations of human sexuality|author=Christopher H. Rosik|date=May 2014|accessdate=23 July 2014}}</ref> and "neurotic character syndrome", characterised by "personality immaturity, self-victimization, and self-centeredness".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/002436311803888267?queryID=23%2F551702|title=On the Psychogenesis of Homosexuality|author=Gerard van den Aardweg|date=August 2011|accessdate=23 July 2014}}</ref> "MSM" (men who have sex with men) are claimed to have "a high rate of substance abuse problems and psychological disorders, and a significant percentage... have experienced childhood sexual abuse and other adverse events".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/2050854913Y.0000000015?queryID=23%2F551702|title=The syndemic of AIDS and STDS among MSM|author=Dale O'Leary|date=February 2014|accessdate=23 July 2014}}</ref> | |||
===Chastity-promoting ministries=== | |||
] of ] saw a need for a ministry which would assist ] Catholics to adhere to Catholic teaching on sexual behaviour. Cooke invited John Harvey to New York to begin the work of ] with Benedict Groeschel, of the ]. The first meeting was held in September 1980 at the Shrine of Mother Seton in ]. The group consists of laymen and laywomen usually under anonymous discretion, together with a priest, to encourage its members to ] from acting on their sexual desires and to live ] according to the Catholic Church's teachings on homosexuality".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.couragerc.org/Encourage.html |title=Encourage |accessdate=2008-10-10 |work= |publisher=Courage}}</ref> | |||
==Homosexuality and Catholic clergy== | |||
{{Main|Homosexuality and Roman Catholic priests}} | |||
Homosexual clergy, and homosexual activity by clergy, are not exclusively modern phenomena. In response to scandals among ordinary clergy, Saint ] wrote his '']'' (1050), which denounced, in ascending order of gravity, four varieties of sexual practice: masturbation, mutual masturbation, interfemoral intercourse, and anal intercourse.<ref name=halsall>Paul Halsall: Medieval Sourcebook. April 2006.</ref> | |||
Estimates presented in Donald B. Cozzens' book ''The Changing Face of the Priesthood'' of the percentage of gay priests range from 23–58%; suggesting a higher than average numbers of homosexual men (active and non-active) within the Catholic priesthood and higher orders.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=2297 |title=The Church and the Homosexual Priest |first=James |last=Martin |date=November 4, 2000 |work=]}}</ref> | |||
The 1961 Instruction issued by the Sacred Congregation for Religious, ''Careful Selection And Training Of Candidates For The States Of Perfection And Sacred Orders'' (''Religiosorum institutio''),<ref>{{cite paper | title=Careful Selection And Training Of Candidates For The States Of Perfection And Sacred Orders | | |||
author=Valeri, Valerio | | |||
publisher=Sacred Congregation For Religious, The Holy See| | |||
date=February 2, 1961| | |||
url=http://www.papalencyclicals.net/John23/j23religios.htm | |||
}}</ref> stated that "Advantage {{sic}} to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers." Bishops had discretion in allowing the further instruction of offending but penitent ]s, and held homosexuals to the same standards of celibate chastity as heterosexual seminarians. | |||
In 1997, the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a letter to the world's bishops giving guidelines for candidates for the seminary stipulating, "''sufficient affective maturity and a clearly masculine sexual identity.''" It reiterated the policy in 2002: "''Ordination to the diaconate and the priesthood of homosexual men or men with homosexual tendencies is absolutely inadvisable and imprudent and, from the pastoral point of view, very risky. A homosexual person, or one with a homosexual tendency is not, therefore, fit to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders.''"<ref>Brownson Institute, ''Crisis'', 2006</ref> | |||
In November 2005, the ] under the direction of John Paul II, issued a document entitled an '']''. It stated that, “''the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called "gay culture"''. Under the policy, men with 'transitory' homosexual tendencies may be ordained deacons following three years of prayer and chastity, but men with 'deeply rooted homosexual tendencies' may never be ordained.<ref name="Richard Scorer 2014, p20"/> While not a new ] teaching, the document enhanced vigilance in barring homosexuals from seminaries, and from the priesthood. While the preparation for this document had started 10 years before its publication,<ref name="InsideTheVatican">"" in ''Inside the Vatican'' (ISSN 1068-8579), January 2006</ref> this instruction was seen at the time as an official "answer" by the Catholic Church to several ]s involving ]s in the late 20th/early 21st century, including the American ] and a 2004 sex scandal in a ] at ] (]).<ref>In '']'': | |||
*"" (July 13, 2004) | |||
*"" (August 14, 2004)</ref> There were some questions on how distinctions between deep-seated and transient homosexuality, as proposed by the document, will be applied in practice: the actual distinction that is made might be between those who abuse, and those who don't.<ref name="guardian"></ref> However, by distinguishing between homosexual orientation and homosexual acts, the Vatican directive was technically according to Archbishop ] of New York "not tout court a no-gays policy".<ref name="Richard Scorer 2014, p20"/> The National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries criticized the document for implying that homosexuality was the cause of the sexual abuse crisis and was associated with ].<ref> November 29, 2005. Accessed June 18, 2007</ref> | |||
In May 2008, ] ], acting on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI, confirmed as applying to all Catholic seminaries everywhere the 2005 declaration<ref></ref> that "the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture'."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12677 |title=Vatican says prohibition against gays in seminaries is universal |publisher=Catholicnewsagency.com |date=2008-05-19 |accessdate=2011-12-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=4786 |title=Men with strong homosexual tendencies may not enter seminary: Vatican |publisher=CiNews |date=2008-05-21 |accessdate=2014-06-23}}</ref> Subsequently in 2010, Bertone, commenting publicly on the clerical abuse crisis, said that "many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia". He said they do believe, however, "that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. "That is true. ... That is the problem."<ref>''New York Daily News'', 13 April 2010</ref> In fact academic literature supports no link between ], within the clergy or not.<ref name="Richard Scorer 2014, p20"/> The secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, Father Aloysius Stock, commented: "There is no empirical data which concludes that sexual orientation is connected to sexual abuse... "<ref>Richard Scorer, "Betrayed: The English Catholic Church and the sex abuse crisis", Biteback, 2014, p22</ref> A study by Tallon and Terry examining the evidence on clergy abusers in the USA concluded that where priests had multiple victims, fewer than half of them had repeatedly abused victims of the same age and gender. While a further study by John Jay suggested that in fact "the abuse decreased as more gay priests began serving in the church".<ref>Richard Scorer, ''Betrayed: The English Catholic Church and the sex abuse crisis'', Biteback, 2014, p20</ref> The gay rights activist ] has argued that "Scapegoating gay people within the Church is both a way for the Vatican to wash its hands of responsibility for the clerical abuse that has taken place and also a way to further demonise gay people and justify the church's anti-gay policies" Furthermore, "Many gay clergy have entrenched the homophobia of the Vatican. They espouse it with great enthusiasm, seeking to atone for their own homosexuality by being ever more homophobic".<ref name="Richard Scorer 2014, p20"/> | |||
===Homosexuality and the episcopacy=== | |||
{{Main|Gay bishops}} | |||
The existence of gay ]s in the ], ], ] and other traditions is a matter of historical record, though never, until recently, considered licit by any of the main Christian denominations.<ref>''Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality'', by John Boswell (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), pp. 211 f.</ref> Homosexual activity was engaged in secretly. When it was made public, official response ranged from inaction to expulsion from ].<ref name="Boswell, 214-15">Boswell, 214-15</ref> As far back as the eleventh century, Ralph, Archbishop of ] had his lover installed as ], yet neither ] ], nor his successor ] took action to depose either man.<ref name="Boswell, 214-15"/> | |||
Although homosexual sexual acts have been consistently condemned by the Catholic Church, a number of senior members of the clergy have been found to have had homosexual relationships. Archbishop ], who retired in 2002, was alleged to have been in a relationship with a former graduate student;<ref>{{dead link|date=February 2013}}</ref> ], the Bishop of ] in Argentenia, retired after video surfaced showing him engaged in homosexual acts;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.queer.de/detail.php?article_id=3332 |title=Queer:Bischof zurückgetreten (german) |publisher=Queer.de |date=2005-08-25 |accessdate=2013-02-11}}</ref> and ], the Bishop of ] in ], resigned in 2009 after it was alleged that he had broken his vow of celibacy.<ref>{{cite web|author=derStandard.at |url=http://derstandard.at/fs/1245820599221/Bischof-trat-nach-schweren-Vorwuerfen-zurueck |title=Der Standard:Bischof trat nach schweren Vorwürfen zurück (German) |publisher=Derstandard.at |accessdate=2013-02-11}}</ref> In 2012, Cardinal ], described as the Catholic Primate of ], was forced to retire prematurely because of complaints that he had made "inappropriate approaches" or "inappropriate contacts" of a homosexual character.<ref></ref> | |||
A number of Popes were rumored to have been ] or to have had male sexual partners.<ref>C. Falconi, ''Leone X'', Milan, 1987</ref><ref>Burkle-Young, Francis A., and Michael Leopoldo Doerrer. ''The Life of Cardinal Innocenzo del Monte: A Scandal in Scarlet'', Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 1997</ref> In the 11th century, ] (1044–1048) was forced out of the papacy amidst a series of scandals, including his sexual orientation toward men. ] (1417–1471) was said by detractors to have died while being sodomised by a page boy. Pope ] (1414–1484) was called a "lover of boys and sodomites". Pope ] (1475–1521) was believed to have engaged in "unnatural vice". Despite having fathered a daughter, there were contemporary suggestions that Pope ] (1443–1513) was homosexual. The reputation of Pope ] (1487–1555), and that of the Catholic Church, were greatly harmed by his scandal-ridden relationship with his adopted nephew. | |||
===Comments by Pope Francis=== | |||
The BBC reported that shortly before the resignation of Pope ] in February 2013, the Italian media in particular used unsourced reports to suggest that there was a "gay lobby" of clergy inside the Vatican who had been collaborating to advance personal interests, thereby opening the Holy See to potential blackmail, and even to suggest that this may have been one of the factors influencing Benedict's decision to resign.<ref name="bbcrumours"/> ] was reported to have acknowledged the existence of this lobby in remarks during a meeting held in private with Catholic ] from Latin America, and he was said to have promised to "see what we can do".<ref name="bbcrumours">{{cite news|title=Pope Francis 'confirms Vatican gay lobby and corruption' |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22869399 |accessdate=27 August 2013 |publisher=BBC News|date=12 June 2013}}</ref> In July 2013, he responded directly to journalists' questions concerning the reported gay lobby. He drew a distinction between the problem of lobbying and the sexual orientation of people: "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?" "The problem", he said, "is not having this orientation. We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem."<ref name=Davies></ref><ref name="BBC News">{{cite news|title=Pope Francis: Who am I to judge gay people?|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23489702|accessdate=27 August 2013|publisher=BBC News|date=29 July 2013}}</ref> | |||
He reaffirmed the Catholic Church's teaching that, while homosexual acts are sinful, homosexual orientation is not and people with that orientation should not be marginalised but integrated into society. In this regard, he quoted the '']'', which says: "They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided."<ref name=CCC2358></ref> In relation to reports that a Vatican official whom he had recently promoted had had a homosexual relationship, he drew a distinction between sins, which can be forgiven if repented of, and crimes, such as sexual abuse of minors.<ref name="Davies"/><ref name="BBC News"/> | |||
Some LGBT groups welcomed the comments, noting that this was the first time a pope had used the word "gay" in public, and had also accepted the existence of gay people as a recognisable part of the Catholic Church community for the first time.<ref>{{cite news|last=McGarry|first=Patsy|title=Irish gay group praises Pope Francis's airborne comments|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/irish-gay-group-praises-pope-francis-s-airborne-comments-1.1485605|accessdate=27 August 2013|newspaper=Irish Times|date=6 August 2013}}</ref> | |||
==Political activity== | ==Political activity== | ||
{{main|Political activity of the Catholic Church on LGBT issues}} | |||
The church has historically been politically active in local, national, and international fora on issues of ], typically to oppose them in keeping with ] and ]. | |||
In various countries, members of the Catholic Church have intervened on occasions both to support efforts to decriminalize homosexuality, and also to ensure it remains an offence under criminal law. The Catholic Church has been described as sending "mixed signals" regarding discrimination based on sexual orientation:{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=}} a 1992 teaching said that because sexuality "evokes moral concern," sexual orientation is different from qualities such as race, ethnicity, sex, or age, which do not.<ref name="Homosexual Persons - July 1992" />{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=}} It added that efforts to "protect the common good" by limiting rights were permissible and sometimes obligatory, and did not constitute discrimination. The church therefore opposes the extension of at least some aspects of civil rights legislation, such as nondiscrimination in public housing,<ref name="WaPoVatican" /> educational or athletic employment,<ref name="WaPoVatican" /> adoption,<ref name="WaPoVatican" /><ref name="Blade" /> or military recruitment,<ref name="WaPoVatican" /><ref name="CatholicExchange" /> to gay men and lesbians.{{sfn|Jung|2007|p=}}{{sfn|Allen|2013|p=179}}<ref name="Homosexual Persons - July 1992" /><ref name="NCRENDA" /> The ] published a statement that was characterized by two theologians as claiming that "nondiscrimination legislation protecting LGBT people promotes immoral sexual behavior, endangers our children, and threatens religious liberty."<ref name="NCRENDA" /> It also campaigns against ]. | |||
===Decriminalization of homosexuality=== | |||
==Notable lesbian, gay, and bisexual Catholics== | |||
====National level==== | |||
{{See also|List of LGBT Catholics}} | |||
The Catholic church has intervened both to support efforts decriminalize homosexuality, and to ensure it remains a criminal offence under civil penal law. In the 1960s, the Catholic Church supported the call of the ] to introduce legislation to decriminalise homosexual acts in ].<ref name="Hansard.millbanksystems.com"/> In Australia, ] ] ] supported efforts begun in the 1970s to likewise change the law.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> In the ] the Catholic ] declared their opposition to "all civil laws which make consensual homosexual acts between adults a crime".<ref name="Stewart 2003, p. 185">Stewart (2003), p. 185</ref> | |||
There have been notable gay Catholics throughout history. Writers such as ],<ref name="gwoods" /> ], ], and ],<ref name="gwoods" /><ref name="unenglish" /> and artists such as ] and ]<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Elie |first1=Paul |title=Andy Warhol's Religious Journey |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/andy-warhols-religious-journey |magazine=The New Yorker |date=7 December 2021}}</ref><ref name="fritscher" /> were influenced by both their Catholicism and their homosexuality. Gay Catholic academics such as ],<ref name="Margalit" /> who was further on expelled from the Society of Jesus in 1987 at the request of the Vatican, and ] have produced work on the history and theological issues at the intersection of Christianity and homosexuality. Some notable LGBT Catholics are or were priests or nuns, such as McNeill, ], and ], who was a Roman Catholic ] before becoming a ]. | |||
In ], however, Catholic bishops opposed efforts to remove homosexual acts from the criminal code; something which was finally done in 1973.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ing |first=Dr |url=http://patrickattard.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/lehen-is-sewwa-1972-ittra-pastorali.html |title=Malta Gay News Library: Leħen is-Sewwa 1973: Ittra Pastorali kontra d-Dekriminalazzjoni ta' l-Omosesswalità |publisher=Patrickattard.blogspot.co.uk |date=2009-03-23 |accessdate=2013-11-26 |language=Maltese |trans_title=Voice of Sewwa 1973: Pastoral Letter against Decriminalization of Homosexuality}}</ref> In ], Cardinal Williams issued in 1985 a statement opposing homosexual law reform, arguing that "to decriminalize homosexuality could suggest to some people that it was morally and socially permissible"; but the Church there declined to submit a formal response to the parliamentary enquiry.<ref>Laurie Guy, ''Worlds in Collision: The Gay Debate in New Zealand'', University of Victoria, Press, 2002</ref> In later years, the local Catholic Church opposed or took action against decriminalization of homosexuality in ].<ref name="belize">{{Cite news |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/02/belize-gay-rights-supreme-court |work=The Guardian |title=Belize gay rights activist in court battle to end homophobic colonial-era laws |date=2 May 2013 |first=Owen |last=Bowcott |first2=Maya |last2=Wolfe-Robinson}}</ref> In ], too, the ] opposed decriminalisation,<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/church-against-legalising-homosexuality/483404/ |work=Indian Express |date=July 1, 2009 |title=Church against legalising homosexuality}}</ref> but Cardinal ], a President of the ] and one of the eight members of ]'s ], declared it wrong to make gay people criminals, since the Catholic Church "teaches that homosexuals have the same dignity of every human being and condemns all forms of unjust discrimination, harassment or abuse".<ref name="asianews.it"/> Homosexuality remains illegal in Belize and India. In ], Cardinal ] was thought to have tacitly approved of a May 2013 bill criminalizing same-sex relationships and participation in gay rights organizations.<ref>31 July 2013, ''Time Magazine'': http://swampland.time.com/2013/07/31/gays-abroad-have-most-to-gain-from-pope-francis-latest-comments/</ref> ], the Archbishop of Jos described the same law as "courageous" when first signed, but subsequently went on to argue that the Catholic Church would "defend any person with a homosexual orientation who is being harassed, who is being imprisoned, who is being punished". Reports suggested that the influence of Pope Francis may have led to him modifying his view.<ref>http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/oscarlopez/nigerian_archbishop_pro_gay</ref> | |||
==See also== | |||
In June 2012, Catholic bishops in ], a country where 42% of the population is Catholic, participated in a joint Christian urging of Parliament to pass the ],<ref name="abroad"/> which originally (in 2009) proposed the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality",.<ref name="monitor"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill: MPs drop death penalty|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20463887 |publisher=BBC|date=23 November 2012|accessdate=15 October 2013}}</ref> In that declaration, Archbishop ] joined other religious leaders calling on parliamentarians to make progress in enacting ] that would broaden criminalisation of same-sex relations. They asked Ugandan Christians "to remain steadfast in opposing the phenomena of homosexuality, lesbianism and same-sex union".<ref name="monitor">{{cite web|last=Tugume|first=John|title=Bishops want shelved anti-gay Bill dusted|url=http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Bishops+want+shelved+anti+gay+Bill+dusted/-/688334/1424158/-/item/0/-/erfgenz/-/index.html|publisher=Daily Monitor|accessdate=26 August 2013|date=June 10, 2012}}</ref> This contrasted with an earlier statement tabled in 2009 by the Ugandan Bishop's Conference which said the Bill did not "pass the test of a caring Christian approach to the issue" and that "the targeting of the sinner, not the sin, is the core flaw of the proposed Bill. The introduction of the death penalty and imprisonment for homosexual acts targets people rather than seeking to counsel and to reach out in compassion to those who need conversion, repentance, support, and hope."<ref name=GayStar></ref> It contrasted also with reaction to the passage of the bill in December 2013, with imprisonment for life as the maximum punishment instead of the death penalty, and its signing into law by ] in February 2014. The Papal Nuncio to Uganda, Archbishop Michael Blume, voiced concern and shock at the bill,<ref name=GayStar/> and Cardinal ], President of the ]'s ], stated that "homosexuals are not criminals" and should not be sent to prison for life. At the same time he called on the international community to continue providing aid to Uganda.<ref></ref> | |||
{{Portal|Catholicism|LGBTQ}} | |||
{{div col|colwidth=30em}} | |||
* ] | |||
* '']'' | |||
* ] | |||
* ]{{div col end}} | |||
<!-- please keep entries in alphabetical order --> | |||
==Notes== | |||
====Global level==== | |||
{{notelist}} | |||
The ], an ] at the ], opposed both informally<ref name="Glatz">{{Cite news |url=http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0806042.htm |title=Vatican makes clear its opposition to U.N. homosexuality declaration |first=Carol |last=Glatz |date=2 December 2008 |agency=Catholic News Service}}</ref> and formally<ref name=CNA/> a 2008 ] opposing human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity, such as criminalization (including the death penalty), violence, and discrimination, and affirming the principles of human rights without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity.<ref></ref> In an interview published on 1 December 2008, Archbishop ], the Holy See's representative at the United Nations General Assembly, said of the proposed declaration that it "asked for the addition of new categories to be protected against discrimination without taking into account that, if adopted, these would create terrible new discriminations" such as, he said, pillorying and pressuring of states that do not recognize as marriage a union between persons of the same sex.<ref name=Migliore>{{Cite news |url=http://www.imedia-info.org/depeches/?num_page=589 |title=Inclure l'avortement dans les droits de l'homme serait une 'barbarie', selon le Saint-Siège (Interview) |date=2 December 2008 |agency=I.MEDIA |accessdate=15 August 2013}}</ref><ref name="reuters-decrim">{{Cite news |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/2008/12/02/uk-vatican-homosexuals-idUKTRE4B13N020081202 |title=Vatican attacked for opposing gay decriminalisation |first=Philip |last=Pullella |date=2 December 2008 |agency=Reuters |accessdate=3 August 2013}}</ref> or to provide adoption rights to gays and lesbians.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 December 2008 |url=http://www.france24.com/en/20081219-UN-homosexuality-gay-rights-decriminalisation-human-rights |title=Gay rights declaration is presented to UN |agency=France 24|accessdate=3 August 2013}}</ref> Speaking on the floor of the General Assembly on 18 December 2008, he said: "The Holy See appreciates the attempts made to condemn all forms of violence against homosexual persons as well as urge States to take necessary measures to put an end to all criminal penalties against them", but added that its failure to define the terms "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" would produce "serious uncertainty" and "undermine the ability of States to enter into and enforce new and existing human rights conventions and standards".<ref name=CNA>{{cite news|title=Vatican U.N. delegation calls for end to unjust discrimination against homosexuals |url=http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican_u.n._delegation_calls_for_end_to_unjust_discrimination_against_homosexuals/ |accessdate=August 3, 2013 |newspaper=Catholic News Agency|date=19 December 2008}}</ref><ref name="zenit.org"/> In Italy, the gay association ] and the newspaper '']'' decried the stance of the Holy See. An editorial in '']'', a general circulation newspaper, said the Vatican's reasoning was "grotesque".<ref name="Glatz"/><ref name="Pullella">{{Cite news |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/2008/12/02/uk-vatican-homosexuals-idUKTRE4B13N020081202 |title=Vatican attacked for opposing gay decriminalisation |first=Philip |last=Pullella |date=December 2, 2008 |agency=Reuters}}</ref> | |||
==References== | |||
During discussion at the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council in 2011 of a Joint Statement on Ending Violence and Related Human Rights Violations Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, the Holy See's representative, Archbishop ], stated: "A state should never punish a person, or deprive a person of the enjoyment of any human right, based just on the person's feelings and thoughts, including sexual thoughts and feelings. But states can, and must, regulate behaviors, including various sexual behaviors. Throughout the world, there is a consensus between societies that certain kinds of sexual behaviors must be forbidden by law. Pedophilia and incest are two examples."<ref name=Orientation>{{cite web|url=http://www.zenit.org/article-32108?l=english |title=Holy See Statement on "Sexual Orientation" | ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome |publisher=ZENIT |date=24 March 2011 |accessdate=2013-02-11}}</ref> He later said of that resolution that recognizing gay rights would cause discrimination against religious leaders and that there was concern lest consequent legislation would lead to "natural marriages and families" being "socially downgraded".<ref name="cna"></ref> | |||
{{Reflist|refs= | |||
<ref name="clark">Anna Clark, Desire: A history of European Sexuality, Routledge, 2012. pp74-75</ref> | |||
<ref name="allen-benedict">John L. Allen, ''Benedict XVI: A Biography'', Continuum, 2005, p201</ref> | |||
<ref name="hp">{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19751229_persona-humana_en.html|title=Persona Humana - Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics|website=www.vatican.va}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Scarnecchia">{{cite book|last=Scarnecchia |first=D. Brian|title=Bioethics, Law, and Human Life Issues|year=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-81087423-7}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Graham">{{Cite news |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bill-donohue-catholic-sex_n_520187 |date=May 31, 2010 |title=Bill Donohue: Catholic Sex Abuse Scandal Is Not A Pedophilia Crisis But A Homosexual Crisis|first=Nicholas |last=Graham}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="cure">{{cite web |url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/homosexuality-cure-masters-johnson/ |title=Can Psychiatrists Really "Cure" Homosexuality? |author=Thomas Maier|website=] |date=22 April 2009|access-date=23 July 2014}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Brockhaus">{{cite news | first = Hannah | last = Brockhaus | date = December 20, 2019 | url = https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/43144/cdf-official-anthropology-and-scripture-document-is-not-open-to-same-sex-unions | title = CDF official: Anthropology and Scripture document is not 'open' to same-sex unions | access-date = December 29, 2019 | publisher = Catholic News Agency}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Considerations">{{cite web|title=Considerations regarding proposals to give legal recognition to unions between homosexual persons|url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20030731_homosexual-unions_en.html|work=Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith|publisher=The Vatican|access-date=2 August 2013}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="care">{{cite web | url = https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html | title = LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON THE PASTORAL CARE OF HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS | publisher = ] | last = Ratizinger | first = Joseph | date = 1 October 1986 | access-date = July 16, 2019}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="burke">{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/us/jesuit-school-indiana-gay-teacher/index.html|title=An Archbishop told a Jesuit school to fire a gay teacher. They said no|last=Burke|first=Daniel|website=CNN|date=20 June 2019|access-date=2019-06-21}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Margalit">Margalit Fox, "Priest who pushed Catholic Church to welcome gays, dies at 90", New York Times, 25 September 2015</ref> | |||
<ref name="gwoods">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofgaylite00wood |url-access=registration |page= |title=A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition |last=Woods |first=Gregory |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1999|isbn=0300080883}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="unenglish">{{Cite journal |url=http://anglicanhistory.org/academic/hilliard_unenglish.pdf |last=Hilliard |first=David |journal=Victorian Studies |year=1982 |title=Un-English and Unmanly: Anglo-Catholicism and Homosexuality}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="fritscher">Jack Fritscher, ''Gay San Francisco: Eyewitness Drummer'', San Francisco, Palm Drive Publishing, 2008, {{ISBN|1890834386}}, p. 473, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210705011149/https://www.jackfritscher.com/PDF/Drummer/Vol |date=5 July 2021 }}, retrieved 29 September 2014.</ref> | |||
<ref name="halsall">{{cite web | first = Paul | last = Halsall | url = http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/homo-damian1.html | title = Medieval Sourcebook: Peter Damian: Liber Gomorrhianus | date = April 2006 | access-date = June 9, 2019 | archive-date = 4 January 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090104200146/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/homo-damian1.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> | |||
<ref name="homosexualpriest">{{cite web|url=http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=2297 |title=The Church and the Homosexual Priest |first=James |last=Martin |date=4 November 2000 |work=]}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Criteria">{{cite web| url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20051104_istruzione_en.html| title=Criteria for the Discernment of Vocation for Persons with Homosexual Tendencies| website=www.vatican.va| access-date=20 July 2018}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="natrev">{{cite news | publisher = National Review | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515135544/http://www.nationalreview.com/dreher/dreher052402.asp | url=http://www.nationalreview.com/dreher/dreher052402.asp |date=15 May 2009 |archive-date = May 15, 2009 | title = Weakland's Exit | first = Rod | last = Dreher}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Bischof">{{cite web|url=http://www.queer.de/detail.php?article_id=3332 |title=Queer:Bischof zurückgetreten (german) |publisher=Queer.de |date=25 August 2005 |access-date=11 February 2013}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Deveney">{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/23/cardinal-keith-o-brien-accused-inappropriate | first = Catherine | last = Deveney | title = UK's top cardinal accused of 'inappropriate acts' by priests | work =The Guardian | date = 23 February 2013}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Falconi">{{cite book|first=Carlo |last=Falconi |title=Leone X: Giovanni de' Medici |publisher=Rusconi |year=1987 |location=Milan}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Burkle">{{cite book| last1=Burkle-Young | first1=Francis A. |first2= Michael | last2=Leopoldo Doerrer | title = The Life of Cardinal Innocenzo del Monte: A Scandal in Scarlet | location =Lewiston, N.Y. | publisher = Edwin Mellen | year = 1997}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="derstandard">{{cite web|author=derStandard.at |url=http://derstandard.at/fs/1245820599221/Bischof-trat-nach-schweren-Vorwuerfen-zurueck |title=Der Standard:Bischof trat nach schweren Vorwürfen zurück (German) |publisher=Derstandard.at |access-date=11 February 2013}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="fired">{{cite web|url=http://www.advocate.com/religion/2015/07/21/fired-priest-pope-listen-lgbt-catholics-concerns|title=Fired Priest to Pope: Listen to LGBT Catholics' Concerns|date=21 July 2015}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="deja">{{cite web| url=http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20150717_Deja_vu__Gay_Catholic_teacher_recalls_his_firing.html#kX1iYHG86vV2GuY1.99|title=Déjà vu: Gay Catholic teacher recalls his firing|date=16 July 2015 }}</ref> | |||
<ref name="huffingtonpost.com">{{cite news| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/warren-hall-pope-francis_55ad6324e4b0caf721b39e2c | work=Huffington Post | title=Gay Priest Fired From Chaplain Job Asks Pope To Meet LGBT Catholics In U.S | date=20 July 2015}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="chaput">{{cite web|url=http://articles.philly.com/2015-07-16/news/64454387_1_pope-francis-chaput-catholic-church|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150724161915/http://articles.philly.com/2015-07-16/news/64454387_1_pope-francis-chaput-catholic-church|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 July 2015|title=Archives - Philly.com|website=]}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="wrestle">{{cite web|url=http://www.startribune.com/catholics-wrestle-with-teachings-as-gay-employees-dismissed/321174451/ |title=Catholics wrestle with teachings as gay employees dismissed - StarTribune.com |website=] |access-date=2 September 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150813003114/http://www.startribune.com/catholics-wrestle-with-teachings-as-gay-employees-dismissed/321174451/ |archive-date=13 August 2015}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="msjc">{{cite web | title = Addressing LGBT Issues: A Resource for Educators | url = http://www.msjc.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Marianist-LGBT-Final-2-15.pdf | access-date = June 25, 2018 | archive-date = 16 November 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171116102649/http://www.msjc.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Marianist-LGBT-Final-2-15.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref> | |||
<!-- UNUSED REF <ref name="home">{{cite news|url=https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/08/don-t-throw-gay-children-out-of-home-pope-francis-urges-catholic-parents.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010011154/https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/08/don-t-throw-gay-children-out-of-home-pope-francis-urges-catholic-parents.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 October 2018|title=Don't throw gay children out of home, Pope Francis urges Catholic parents|newspaper=Newshub|date=28 August 2018}}</ref> --> | |||
<ref name="bailey">{{cite book| first = Derrick S. | last = Bailey | title = Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition | location = London | publisher = Longmans, Green | year = 1955 |page = 185}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Bailey2">{{cite book| first = Derrick S. | last = Bailey | title = Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition | location = London | publisher = Longmans, Green | year = 1955 |page = 185}} cited in </ref> | |||
<ref name="Linacre">{{cite book|last=Dempsey|first=Robert J. |title=The Linacre Quarterly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pmshAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA77|volume=75|year=2008|publisher=Catholic Medical Association|page=77|id=IND:30000125071534}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="reid">{{cite news | url = https://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-j-reid-jr/lets-banish-talk-about-intrinsic-disorder_b_4174863.html| title = Let's Banish Talk About 'Intrinsic Disorder' | first = Charles J. Jr. | last = Reid | date = October 30, 2013 | access-date = July 18, 2018 | publisher = Huffington Post}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="CurranCurran1998">{{cite book|last1=Curran|first1=Charles E. |last2=Curran|first2=Charles A.|last3=McCormick|first3=Richard A. |title=John Paul II and Moral Theology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jjGwZ_38gSAC&pg=PA178|access-date=January 29, 2019|year=1998|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=978-0-8091-3797-8|page=178}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="statesman">{{cite news |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=Christopher Hitchens on the death of Pope Paul VI |work=New Statesman |date=28 February 2013 |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2013/02/christopher-hitchens-death-pope-paul-vi}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="summa">{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3154.htm#article3|title=SUMMA THEOLOGIAE: The parts of Lust (Secunda Secundae Partis, Q. 154)|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Crompton2009">{{cite book|last=Crompton|first=Louis |title=Homosexuality and Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TfBYd9xVaXcC&pg=PA118|access-date=January 29, 2019|date=July 2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-03006-0|page=118}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Gagarin2010">{{cite book|last=Gagarin|first=Michael |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lNV6-HsUppsC&pg=RA2-PA110|access-date=January 29, 2019|year=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517072-6|page=2}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="SacksMurray2014">{{cite book|last1=Sacks|first1=David |last2=Murray|first2=Oswyn |last3=Brody|first3=Lisa R. |title=Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yyrao0dadqAC&pg=PA160|access-date=January 29, 2019|date=May 14, 2014|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-1020-2|page=160}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="arrested">{{cite web | url = https://www.dignityusa.org/article/104-activists-arrested-roman-catholicism’s-national-shrine | title = 104 Activists Arrested at Roman Catholicism's National Shrine | access-date = 12 March 2018}}</ref> | |||
On 28 January 2012, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, gave a speech calling on African nations to repeal laws that place sanctions on homosexual conduct. Speaking to a journalist, African Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the ], called the speech stupid. The journalist reported: "Asked if Ban Ki-moon was overstepping his responsibilities, Cardinal Sarah replied: 'Sure, you cannot impose something stupid like that.' He added: 'Poor countries like Africa just accept it because it's imposed upon them through money, through being tied to aid.'" He said that African bishops must react against this move against African culture.<ref></ref> | |||
<ref name="Barnes">{{cite web|last=Barnes |first=Tom|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/vatican-lgbt-gay-religious-acceptance-pope-francis-trans-lesbian-a8408286.html |title=Vatican officially uses term 'LGBT' for first time in its history |work=The Independent |date=20 June 2018|access-date=2018-06-23}}</ref> | |||
<!-- UNUSED REF <ref name="sharman">{{cite news | first = Jon | last = Sharman | date = 28 August 2018 | title = Vatican clarifies Pope Francis comments on psychiatric help for gay children | work = The Independent}}</ref> --> | |||
<ref name="crimson">{{cite news | url = http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1990/11/30/catholic-students-protest-tactics-of-gay/ | title = Catholic Students Protest Tactics of Gay Activists | first = Ivan | last = Oransky | date = 30 November 1990 | newspaper = The Harvard Crimson | access-date = 12 March 2018}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="darrin">{{cite web |last=Kurwitz |first=Darrin |date=12 March 2013 |title=Knights of Columbus: Standing on the Wrong Side of History, for a Change |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/darrin-hurwitz/knights-of-columbus-stand_b_2854800.html |website=The Huffington Post |access-date=6 March 2018}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Encourage">{{cite web|url=http://www.couragerc.org/Encourage.html |title=Encourage |access-date=10 October 2008 |publisher=Courage |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090119111810/http://www.couragerc.org/Encourage.html |archive-date=19 January 2009}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="femen">{{cite news | url = https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/24/topless-femen-protest-andre-jozef-leonard_n_3146609.html | date = 24 April 2013 | title = Topless FEMEN Protesters Drench Belgian Archbishop André-Jozef Léonard, Protest Homophobia In Catholic Church | access-date = 12 March 2018}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="fire">{{cite web | title=Man sets himself on fire in Vatican | work=BBC News | date=December 19, 2013 | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-25453307 | access-date=July 25, 2018}}</ref> | |||
<!-- UNUSED REF <ref name="Gallagher">{{cite web|last=Gallagher |first=Delia |url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/21/europe/pope-francis-gay-comments-intl/index.html |title=Pope Francis tells gay man: 'God made you like that' |publisher=CNN |date=2018-05-21 |access-date=2018-06-12}}</ref> --> | |||
<ref name="Gehring">{{cite news | title = Can the Catholic Church 'Evolve' on L.G.B.T. Rights? | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/opinion/pope-francis-catholic-church-lgbt.html | first = John | last = Gehring | newspaper = The New York Times | date = July 5, 2018 | access-date = July 5, 2018}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Homosexual Persons - July 1992">{{Cite web| url = https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19920724_homosexual-persons_en.html | title = Some Considerations Concerning the Catholic Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons | publisher = ] | date = July 1992}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="law">{{cite news | title = Hundreds protest Cardinal Law at ordination | newspaper = The Boston Sunday Globe | page = 25 | first = Irene | last = Sege | date = June 17, 1990}}</ref> | |||
===Discrimination against homosexuals=== | |||
<ref name="Lifelong">{{cite book| title = Human Sexuality: A Catholic Perspective for Education and Lifelong Learning| url = https://archive.org/details/humansexualitypu00unit| url-access = registration| year = 1991 | page = | publisher = United States Catholic Conference| isbn = 9781555864057}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Martin">{{cite news| url = https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/04/06/what-official-church-teaching-homosexuality-responding-commonly-asked-question | title = What is the official church teaching on homosexuality? Responding to a commonly asked question | first = James | last = Martin, S.J. | date = April 6, 2018 | publisher = America | access-date = May 21, 2019}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="McNeill4">{{cite book| last = McNeill | first = John J. | url = https://archive.org/details/churchhomosexual00mcne_1 | url-access = registration | title = The Church and the Homosexual | edition = 4 | publisher = Beacon Press | year = 1993 | isbn = 9780807079317}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="pilot">{{cite news | url = https://www.thebostonpilot.com/articleprint.asp?id=177277 | title = Bishop Mark O'Connell: 'I plan on being a happy bishop' | date = 26 August 2016 | first = Doris | last = Tracy | newspaper = The Pilot | access-date = 12 March 2018}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Kuruvilla">{{Cite news |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pope-denounces-gay-marriage-annual-xmas-message-article-1.1225960 |work=NY Daily News |date=22 December 2012 |title=Pope Benedict denounces gay marriage during his annual Christmas message |first=Carol |last=Kuruvilla |location=New York}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="sept82">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/26/us/around-the-nation-catholic-group-provokes-debate-on-homosexuals.html | work=The New York Times | title=AROUND THE NATION; Catholic Group Provokes Debate on Homosexuals | date=26 September 1982 | access-date=4 May 2010}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Richard Scorer 2014, p20">{{cite book | first = Richard | last = Scorer | title = Betrayed: The English Catholic Church and the sex abuse crisis | publisher = Biteback | year = 2014 | page =20}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="rude">{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/03/nyregion/rude-rash-effective-act-up-shifts-aids-policy.html | title = Rude, Rash, Effective, Act-Up Shifts AIDS Policy | first = Jason | last = DeParle | date = January 3, 1990 | newspaper = New York Times | page = B1 | access-date = August 7, 2018}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="sash">{{cite news | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/11/14/gay-activists-interrupt-catholic-bishops-conference/1d9993e2-39ce-4ce9-b045-e76a60198c41/ | title = Gay Activists Interrupt Catholic Bishops' Conference | first = Hanna | last = Rosin | date = 14 November 2000 | newspaper = The Washington Post | access-date = 12 March 2018}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="soble">{{cite news | url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-04-me-106-story.html | title = 4 Catholic Churches Defaced in AIDS Protest : Vandalism: Caller says gay activists were angered by Archbishop Roger Mahony's condemnation of the use of condoms to fight the deadly disease. | date= 4 December 1989 | first = Ronald L. | last = Soble | newspaper = LA Times | access-date = 12 March 2018}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Tausch">{{cite web | last = Tausch | first = Arno | title = Practicing Catholics and Their Attitudes on Homosexuality. Comparative Analyses, Based on Recent World Values Survey Data | date = 27 November 2017 | url = https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/82681/}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Wages">{{citation|last=Allen|first=Peter L. |title=The Wages of Sin: Sex and Disease, Past and Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lpL5WGCNMwAC|access-date=July 27, 2018|date=June 2002|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-01461-6|page=143}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="boulder">{{cite web|url=http://www.boulderdailycamera.com/livingarts/religion/25pgay.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040105055504/http://www.boulderdailycamera.com/livingarts/religion/25pgay.html |archive-date=5 January 2004 |title=Boulder DailyCamera.com: Colorado, News, Business, Sports, Homes, Jobs, Cars & Information |publisher=Boulder Daily Camera |access-date=5 December 2011}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="debate">{{cite web|url=http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/2008/07/08/wyd-site-limits-gay-debate/533 |title=WYD site limits gay debate | Star Online |date=8 July 2008 |publisher=Starobserver.com.au |access-date=5 December 2011}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Classen">Albrecht Classen, Marilyn Sandidge, ''Friendship in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age'', </ref> | |||
<ref name="NCRENDA">{{cite news| url = https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/nondiscrimination-laws-merit-church-support | title = Nondiscrimination laws merit church support | first1 = Todd | last1 = Salzman | first2 = Michael | last2 = Lawler | newspaper = ] | date = April 19, 2016}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="WaPoVatican">{{cite news | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/07/17/vatican-supports-bias-against-gays/3755e264-5c15-44bf-b248-c8374df4a873/ | title = Vatican Supports Bias Against Gays | newspaper = ] | date = July 17, 1992}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Blade">{{cite news | url = https://www.washingtonblade.com/2018/08/31/supreme-court-wont-hear-challenge-to-philly-pro-lgbt-adoption-policy/ | title = Supreme Court rebuffs Catholic agency seeking to reject LGBT couples | newspaper = ] | date = August 31, 2018}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="CatholicExchange">{{cite web | url = https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/marriage-and-family/sexuality/dont-ask-dont-tell-dont-change.html | title = Don't Ask; Don't Tell; Don't Change | author-link = Russell Shaw (writer) | first = Russell | last = Shaw | date = 2 March 2010 | publisher = ]}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="CCC">{{Cite CCC|2.1|2357-2359}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="LiQ96">{{cite book |last1=Boswell |first1=John |title=Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century |date=December 10, 2015 |publisher=University of Chicago Press; 35th Anniversary edition |isbn=978-0-226-34536-9 |pages=176 |edition=Kindle}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="zgUFs">Lulu Garcia-Navarro, "How The Catholic Church Aided Both The Sick And The Sickness As HIV Spread", PBS, 1 December 2019 {{full citation needed|date=May 2020}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Dx2YJ">Stewart 2003, p. 184</ref> | |||
<ref name="Congregationfor"></ref> | |||
<ref name="YfE7C">{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_lt.html|title=Epistula de pastorali personarum homosexualium cura, d. 1 m. Octobris a. 1986, Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei|website=www.vatican.va}}</ref> | |||
Siker has described the Church as sending "mixed signals" regarding discrimination based on sexual orientation. It does not regard such an orientation is comparable to gender or race differentiation and so actively opposes the extension of at least some aspects of civil rights legislation to gay men and lesbians.<ref name="Siker"/>{{rp|194}} | |||
<ref name="jZxO2">{{Cite book |title=The Vatican and homosexuality: reactions to the "Letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church on the pastoral care of homosexual persons" |url=https://archive.org/details/vaticanhomosexua00seli |url-access=registration |year=1988 |last1=Gramick |first1=Jeannine |last2=Nugent |first2=Robert |publisher=Crossroad | page = |isbn=9780824508647 }}</ref> | |||
<ref name="1VcmJ">{{Cite book |title=Gay religion |chapter=The gay god of the city: the emergence of the gay and lesbian ethnic parish |publisher=Rowman Altamira |first=Leonard Norman |last=Primiano |date=10 December 2004 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dTZuAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 |page=10|isbn=9780759115064 }}</ref> | |||
The Vatican holds that there are areas in which it is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientaion into account.<ref name="Siker"/>{{rp|193}}<ref>John J. Allen, ''The Catholic Church: What everyone needs to know'', USA, 2013, p.179</ref> In 1992, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a statement under the title "Some Considerations Concerning the Catholic Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons". It commented that some "municipal authorities made public housing, otherwise reserved for families, available to homosexual (and unmarried heterosexual) couples" and said that "such initiatives ... may in fact have a negative impact on the family and society", affecting "such things as the adoption of children, the employment of teachers, the housing needs of genuine families, landlords' legitimate concerns in screening potential tenants". After recalling what it had already stated in its 1986 letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the pastoral care of homosexual persons, it declared that, because of the moral concern that sexual orientation raises, it is different from qualities such as race, ethnicity, sex or age, and therefore "there are areas where it is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account, for example, in the placement of children for adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or athletic coaches, and in military recruitment". Limitation of rights is permissible, and sometimes even obligatory, in cases of "objectively disordered external conduct", even if the conduct is not culpable, as in the case of "contagious or mentally ill persons", the exercise of whose rights can justly, for the sake of the common good, be restricted.<ref name="Homosexual Persons - July 1992">, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. July 1992.</ref> | |||
<ref name="RqpYH">{{Cite book |title=Roman Catholicism in America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s-nEky7gs_wC&pg=PA178 |first=Chester |last=Gillis |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2013 |page=178|isbn = 9780231502573}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="ZLH1k">{{Cite book |title=Gay and Lesbian Rights: A Question - Sexual Ethics Or Social Justice? |publisher=Rowman and Littlefield |year=1996 |first=Richard |last=Peddicord |page=viii |isbn=9781556127595 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GaDXSkJX-3EC&pg=PR8}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="2knT2">{{Cite book |title=What's Left? Liberal American Catholics|year=1999 |publisher=Indiana University Press|chapter=Resisting Traditional Catholic Sexual Teaching: Pro-Choice Advocacy and Homosexual Support Groups |last=Weaver|first=Mary Jo |page=100 |isbn=0253335795 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7wuAo7LRdzwC&pg=PA100}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="pVsyw">{{cite book |last=Dillon |first=Michele |title=Catholic Identity |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-52163959-0 |page= |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/catholicidentity00dill_0/page/59}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="yWelX">{{cite book |last=Kowalewski |first=Mark R. |title=All Things to All People |year=1994 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-79141778-2 |page= |url=https://archive.org/details/allthingstoallpe0000kowa/page/47}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Advocate">{{cite web|title=The Advocate's Person of the Year 2013|url=http://www.advocate.com/year-review/2013/12/16/advocates-person-year-pope-francis|publisher=The Advocate Magazine|first=Lucas|last=Grindley|date=16 December 2013|access-date=3 June 2015}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Coleridge">{{cite news |url=http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/10/07/archbishop-coleridge-says-synod-6535-against-communion-for-the-divorced-and-remarried/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151008235334/http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/10/07/archbishop-coleridge-says-synod-6535-against-communion-for-the-divorced-and-remarried/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 October 2015 |title=Archbishop Coleridge says synod 65/35 against Communion for the divorced and remarried |work=Crux |date=7 October 2015 |access-date=8 October 2015 |author1=Allen Jr. |author2=John L. }}</ref> | |||
<ref name="compassion">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2014/10/13/vatican-meeting-see-the-positive-even-in-irregular-families/ |title=Church must show more compassion, respect for same-sex couples, Vatican document says |first=Michelle |last=Boorstein |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=13 October 2014 |access-date=20 October 2014}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="dismayed">{{cite news |title=Conservative bishops dismayed by opening to gays |url=http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/10/14/rollback-bishops-seek-to-balance-opening-to-gays/ |work=Crux |access-date=20 October 2014 |date=14 October 2014 |last=Winfield |first=Nicole |archive-date=18 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018060906/http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/10/14/rollback-bishops-seek-to-balance-opening-to-gays/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
<ref name="integrate">{{cite news |url=http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/10/24/bishops-integrate-remarried-catholics-into-church-life/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151025125140/http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/10/24/bishops-integrate-remarried-catholics-into-church-life/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 October 2015 |title=Bishops: Integrate remarried Catholics into Church life |first1=Michael J. |last1=O'Loughlin |first2=Inés |last2=San Martín |work=Crux |date=24 October 2015 |access-date=24 October 2015 }}</ref> | |||
<!--<ref name="Linz">{{cite web|url=https://www.newwaysministry.org/2018/02/15/midst-debate-austrian-parishes-bless-gender-couples-love/|title=In Midst of Debate, Austrian Parishes Bless Same-Gender Couples' Love - New Ways Ministry|date=15 February 2018|access-date=27 July 2018}}</ref>--> | |||
<ref name="playing">{{cite news |url=http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/10/07/pope-francis-is-playing-with-house-money-in-betting-on-the-2015-synod/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151008130108/http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/10/07/pope-francis-is-playing-with-house-money-in-betting-on-the-2015-synod/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 October 2015 |title=Pope Francis is playing with house money in betting on the 2015 Synod |work=Crux |date=7 October 2015 |access-date=7 October 2015 |last=Allen, Jr. |first=John L. }}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Relatio">{{cite web |url=http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/10/13/0751/03037.html |title=Eleventh General Assembly: "Relatio post disceptationem" of the General Rapporteur |last=Erdő |first=Péter |date=13 October 2014 |access-date=27 October 2014 |author-link=Péter Erdő |publisher=Holy See Press Office}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="stuns">{{cite news |url=http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/10/13/vatican-stuns-catholic-world-with-greater-openness-toward-gays-and-lesbians/ |title=Vatican stuns Catholic world with greater openness toward gays and lesbians |first=Josephine |last=Mckenna |date=13 October 2014 |access-date=20 October 2014 |work=Crux |archive-date=18 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018010044/http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/10/13/vatican-stuns-catholic-world-with-greater-openness-toward-gays-and-lesbians/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
<ref name="847VB">"Catholic Herald, "German bishop suggests blessing same-sex unions"(22 January 2018) - http://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/01/12/german-bishop-suggests-blessing-same-sex-unions/</ref> | |||
<ref name="Wimmer">{{cite news | publisher = Catholic News Agency | first = Anian | last = Wimmer | date = February 7, 2018 | title = Cardinal Marx discusses blessings for same-sex couples | url = https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/37678/updated-cardinal-marx-discusses-blessings-for-same-sex-couples}}</ref> | |||
<ref name="always"></ref> | |||
<ref name="cornwell-breaking">{{Cite book |title=Breaking Faith: The Pope, the People and the Fate of Catholicism |url=https://archive.org/details/breakingfaithpop00corn |url-access=registration |first=John |last=Cornwell |year=2001 |publisher=Viking|isbn=9780670030026 }}</ref> | |||
<ref name="Siker2006">{{cite book|last=Siker|first=Jeffrey S. |title=Homosexuality and Religion: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6nYCeP_w8YC|access-date=25 May 2020|date=November 2006|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-01431-4|page=54}}</ref> | |||
}} | |||
==Works cited== | |||
The United States Conference of Bishops wrote to all members of the Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labour and Pensions in 2013 to register its opposition to a proposed ] (ENDA).<ref></ref> The proposed legislation would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by civilian, nonreligious employers with at least 15 employees. While they expressed their belief that "no one should be an object of scorn, hatred, or violence for any reason, including sexual inclination", the bishops declared: "We have a moral obligation to oppose any law that would be so likely to contribute to legal attempts to redefine marriage".<ref> - USCBB</ref> In 1999, the trustees of ], a Catholic university in the USA rejected a proposal to amend their antidiscrimination clause to include sexual orientation along with characteristics such as race, color, and gender.<ref name=NDM></ref> | |||
* {{cite book |last=Allen |first=John L. |author-link=John L. Allen Jr. |title=The Catholic Church: What Everyone Needs to Know |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6i-VaE8aD6MC |access-date=January 29, 2019 |date=May 30, 2013 |publisher=OUP USA|isbn=978-0-19-997510-5 }} | |||
* {{cite book | title = Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality | url = https://archive.org/details/christianitysoci00boswrich | url-access = registration | first = John | last = Boswell | location = Chicago | publisher = University of Chicago Press | year = 1980 }} | |||
In July 2013, Cardinal ] referred to President Obama's nominee for ]’s ambassador by the anti-gay slur ''maricón''.<ref name="abroad"/> In 2011 a Catholic bishop in Peru, Luis Bambarén, was forced to apologize for using the same word in commenting, when answering journalists' questions on plans to legalise same-sex marriage, on the use in Spanish of the English word "gay": "I do not know why we talk about Gays. Let's speak in Creole or Castilian: They're faggots. That's how you say it, right?" He later apologized, saying: "It is an offensive word, and deserve respect."<ref></ref> In May 2014 the Archbishop of ], ], Lewis Zeigler, was reported as saying against the backdrop of the ] outbreak that "one of the major transgressions against God for which He may be punishing Liberia is the act of homosexuality".<ref>http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/23/us-foundation-ebola-liberia-gay-idUKKCN0IC1GV20141023</ref> | |||
* {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Homosexuality and Religion: An Encyclopedia |editor-last=Siker |editor-first=Jeffrey S. |title=The Roman Catholic Tradition |last1=Jung |first1=Patricia Beattie |url=https://archive.org/details/HomosexualityAndReligion-AnEncyclopedia/page/n203 |year=2007 |publisher=] |location=Westport, Connecticut |isbn=978-0313330889 |oclc=803676004 |pages=191–200}} | |||
In 2014 the United Nation's ] expressed concern in a report about the Holy See’s past statements and declarations on homosexuality which it said "contribute to the social stigmatization of and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adolescents and children raised by same sex couples". The Committee urged the Holy See to "make full use of its moral authority to condemn all forms of harassment, discrimination or violence against children based on their sexual orientation or the sexual orientation of their parents and to support efforts at international level for the decriminalisation of homosexuality."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/vatican-slammed-by-un-human-rights-committee-over-sex-abuse-1.2523737 | work=CBC News}}</ref><ref></ref> | |||
In contrast, in May 2014, Bishop ] of Malta attended an event organised by the Maltese Catholic gay rights group Drachma to mark ](International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia)<ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/05/19/malta-bishop-who-described-gay-unions-as-a-grave-moral-act-meets-with-gay-catholics/</ref> | |||
===Campaign against same-sex marriage and civil unions=== | |||
] officially took place in 1901 between Marcela Gracia Ibeas and Elisa Sanchez Loriga and was held in the Catholic Church of St.Jorge; but without the knowledge of the priest.]] | |||
In recent years, the Catholic Church has resisted legislative efforts by governments to give equal rights to gay men and women through the establishment of either civil unions or same-sex marriage. | |||
On 3 June 2003, the ] published a document with the agreement of ] called "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons" opposing the very idea of same-sex marriage. This document made clear that "legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour ... but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity". Catholic legislators were instructed that supporting such recognition would be "gravely immoral", and that they must do all they could do actively oppose it, bearing in mind that "the approval or legalisation of evil is something far different from the toleration of evil". The document said that allowing children to be adopted by people living in homosexual union would actually mean doing violence to them, and stated: "There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law."<ref>{{cite web|title=Considerations regarding proposals to give legal recognition to unions between homosexual persons|url=http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20030731_homosexual-unions_en.html|work=Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith|publisher=The Vatican|accessdate=August 2, 2013}}</ref> | |||
On 9 March 2012, Pope Benedict XVI, denouncing "the powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage", currents that the ''Washington Post'' described as a "cultural shift toward gay marriage in U.S.", told a group of United States bishops on their '']'' visit to Rome that "the Church's conscientious effort to resist this pressure calls for a reasoned defense of marriage as a natural institution consisting of a specific communion of persons, essentially rooted in the complementarity of the sexes and oriented to procreation. Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage."<ref></ref><ref></ref> | |||
====North America==== | |||
In the United States, the leadership of the Catholic Church has taken an active and financial role in political campaigns across all states regarding same-sex marriage.<ref name="npr-marriage">{{cite news|url=http://www.npr.org/2012/06/06/154408067/deadline-nears-for-gay-marriage-referendum-in-washington|title=Seattle Catholics Divided On Repealing Gay Marriage|author=Liz Jones|agency=NPR|date=2012-06-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=154455516|date=2012-06-06|title=Prayers Divided Over Gay-Marriage Ban In Minnesota|agency=NPR}}</ref> ] said that the church spent nearly $2 million in 2012 toward unsuccessful campaigns against gay marriage in four states (Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington), representing a significant share of the contributions used to fund anti-gay marriage campaigns,<ref name="huffpo112012">{{Cite news |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/catholic-church-2-million-defeat-marriage-equality_n_2140255.html |work=Huffington Post |date=November 15, 2012 |first=Sara |last=Gates |title=Roman Catholic Church Leadership Poured $2 Million Into Fight Against Marriage Equality}}</ref> although a 2012 ] poll indicated that Catholics in the United States generally who support gay marriage outnumber those who oppose it at 52 percent to 37 percent<ref name="huffpo112012"/> | |||
In addition to financially supporting political campaigns against same-sex marriage, the church has also urged its followers to campaign and vote against it, distributing anti-gay-marriage DVDs and asking parishioners to write to lawmakers and urge them to oppose the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.<ref name="ap-mpr"/> In Washington State, for example, the four Catholic bishops were reported as "intensifying a campaign of pastoral statements and videos urging parishoners to vote against marriage equality" under ].<ref name=HolyPost>''San Francisco Chronicle'', 8 October 2012, as cited in </ref> | |||
Bishops and archbishops have described same-sex marriage as against nature and a risk to spiritual well-being and discouraged Catholics from attending same-sex weddings, as well as from taking communion if they supported same-sex marriage.<ref name="ap-mpr">{{Cite news |url=http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/06/02/politics/catholic-influence-wanes-in-gay-marriage-fight |date=June 2, 2013 |title=Catholic influence wanes amid same-sex marriage fight |agency=Associated Press |first=Steve |last=Peoples}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Gay Marriage Supporters Should Avoid Taking Communion, Says Allen Vigneron, Detroit Catholic Archbishop|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/gay-marriage-supporters-communion-catholic-allen-vigneron_n_3037109.html|accessdate=27 August 2013|newspaper=Huffington Post|date=8 April 2013|first=Ashley|last=Woods}}</ref> | |||
In 2004, ], as Bishop of Salt Lake City, who opposed same-sex marriage, spoke against a proposal to include a ban against it in the Utah state constitution, saying that he feared it excluded unions other than marriage and that the prohibition by law was sufficient<ref></ref> But in 2008, as Archbishop of ], he campaigned in favor of California's ], a ballot measure to recognize heterosexual marriage constitutionally as the only valid marriage within California, and was said to have been instrumental in forging alliances between Catholics and ] to support the measure.<ref>Kuruvila, Matthai (November 10, 2008) San Francisco Chronicle. (Retrieved 11-10-08.)</ref> His successsor, ], had been instrumental in devising the initiative. Campaign finance records show he personally gave at least $6,000 to back the voter-approved ban<ref>, Huffington Post 7/27/2012</ref> and was instrumental in raising $1.5 million to put the proposition on the ballot.<ref>, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/14/14</ref> Subsequently, as Cardinal Archbishop of San Francisco, he called for an amendment to the US Constitution as "the only remedy in law against judicial activism" following the striking down of a number of state same-sex marriage bans by federal judges. He also attended and addressed the audience at the "March for Marriage", a rally opposing marriage for same-sex couples, in Washington, D.C. in June 2014, in spite of being warned by Nancy Pelosi against doing so.<ref>19 June 2014, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', cited in </ref> | |||
In 2010, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops clarified the criteria for the funding of community development programs by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. One criterion was exclusion of organizations advancing activities that run counter to Catholic teaching, examples of which included those that support or promote same-sex marriage or discrimination.<ref>Pink News, http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/us-catholic-church-slashes-funding-immigrants-rights-group-over-gay-marriage170714</ref><ref>http://www.usccb.org/about/catholic-campaign-for-human-development/grants/community-development-grants-program/community-criteria-guidelines-and-policies.cfm</ref> | |||
In July 2003, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Canada, the country's plurality religion, protested the ] government's plans to include same-sex couples in civil marriage. The church criticisms were accompanied by Vatican claims that Catholic politicians should vote according to their personal beliefs rather than the policy of the government. Amid a subsequent backlash in opinion, the church remained quiet on the subject until late 2004, when the Bishop of Calgary, ], wrote a pastoral letter calling homosexual behaviour "an evil act"<ref name='rt110305'/> and seeming to call for its outlaw by the government, saying "Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the State must use its coercive power to proscribe or curtail them in the interests of the common good."<ref name='rt110305'>{{cite news | first= | last= | title=Complaints before the Alberta Human Rights Commission concerning Bishop Henry's pastoral letter | date=November 3, 2005 | publisher=Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance | url =http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_marb45.htm | work =religioustolerance.org | pages = | accessdate =July 30, 2007 | language = }}</ref> | |||
====Europe==== | |||
Catholic Church figures have also criticized attempts to legalize same-sex marriage in Europe. ] criticized same-sex marriage when it was introduced in the ] in 2001,<ref>{{cite web|title=Pope criticizes 'purple' legislation on gay marriage (in Dutch)|url=http://www.refdag.nl/oud/kl/001024kl04.html|publisher=refdag.nl|accessdate=28 September 2012}}</ref> and cardinals in Scotland and France said that it was a danger to society.<ref name="ReferenceC"/><ref name="Patrick"/> | |||
In Spain and Portugal, Catholic leaders led the opposition to same-sex marriage, urging their followers to vote against it or to refuse to implement the marriages should they become legal.<ref name="Vatican condemns Spain gay bill"/> In May 2010, during an official visit to Portugal four days before the ratification of the law, ], affirmed his opposition by describing it as "insidious and dangerous".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=5721&MediaType=1&Category=24 |title=In Portugal, Pope Calls Gay Marriage An 'Insidious' Threat - On Top Magazine | Gay news & entertainment |publisher=Ontopmag.com |date=2010-05-13 |accessdate=2013-09-02}}</ref> | |||
In 2010 in ], Sean Brady (the Archbishop of Armagh) unsuccessfully asked Irish Catholics to resist government proposals for same-sex civil partnerships, and the Irish episcopal conference said that they discriminated against people in non-sexual relationships.<ref name="catholicnewsagency.com"/> In April 2013, when the legalization of same-sex marriage was being discussed, the Irish Bishops Conference stated in their submission to a constitutional convention that, if the civil definition of marriage was changed to include same-sex marriage, so that it differed from the church's own definition, they could no longer perform civil functions at weddings.<ref name="independent.ie"/><ref name="irishexaminer.com"/> | |||
In the predominantly Catholic countries of ] and ] the Catholic Church has been the main opponent to either the introduction of civil unions or marriage for same-sex-couples.<ref name="The Independent"/> In July 2013, 750,000 signatures (a fifth of Croatia's total population) were collected by Church leaders for a petition calling on law-makers to ensure the prohibition on same-sex marriage was embedded in the national Constitution.<ref name="Gay Star News"/> | |||
====South America==== | |||
In response to efforts to introduce same-sex marriage in ] in 2013, Pablo Galimberti, the Bishop of ], on behalf of the Uruguayan Bishops Council, said that marriage was "an institution that is already so injured" and that the proposed law would "confuse more than clarify". The proposal nevertheless became law, with strong public support.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/02/world/americas/uruguay-same-sex-marriage |title=Uruguay's senate approves same-sex marriage bill - CNN.com |publisher=Edition.cnn.com |date=2013-04-03 |accessdate=2013-09-02}}</ref> | |||
====Africa==== | |||
In ], Victor Tonye Bakot, the Archbishop of Yaounde, urged parishioners in 2012 that: “Marriage of persons of the same sex is a serious crime against humanity. We need to stand up to combat it with all our energy”.<ref name="abroad"/> At the start of 2013 the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon followed this up by issuing a public statement urging "all believers and people of good will to reject homosexuality and so-called ‘gay marriage’".<ref name="Africareview.com"/> | |||
In 2014, the Catholic Bishops Conference in ] welcomed legislation passed by the government to make participation in a same-sex marriage a crime punishable by 14 years imprisonment. It noted the move as a "courageous act" and a "step in the right direction". The Archbishop of Jos, ], argued that the action was "in line with the moral and ethical values of the Nigerian and African cultures", and blessed President ] in not bowing to international pressure: "To protect you and yor administration against the conspiracy of the developed world to make our country and continent, the dumping ground for the promotion of immoral practices".<ref name="gaystarnews.com"/> | |||
====Acceptance of civil unions==== | |||
There has been some dissent expressed in recent years by senior and notable figures in the Catholic Church on whether support should not be given for homosexual civil unions. | |||
] | |||
In his book ''Credere e conoscere'', published shortly before his death, Cardinal ], the former Archbishop of Milan, set out his disagreement with opposition by Catholics to homosexual ]: "I disagree with the positions of those in the Church, that take issue with civil unions”, he wrote. “It is not bad, instead of casual sex between men, that two people have a certain stability" and said that the "state could recognize them". Although he stated his belief that "the homosexual couple, as such, can never be totally equated to a marriage", he also said that he could understand (although not necessarily approve of) ] parades when they support the need for self-affirmation.<ref>Martini and Marino, ''Credere e conoscere'', 2012;</ref><ref>Terence Weldon, , March 29, 2012, Queering The Church.</ref> | |||
In 2006 Thedore McCarrick, as Archbishop of Washington, indicated an acceptance for such unions<ref>http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/washington-cardinal-mccarrick-says-he-supports-same-sex-civil-unions-on-cnn</ref> In 2013 ], the Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna stated "There can be same-sex partnerships and they need respect, and even civil law protection." Cardinal ] of Bogota has said: "Other unions have the right to exist, no one can ask them not to, but they should not be equated to marriage".<ref>''The Tablet'', 12 April 2013</ref> The former Papal Master of Ceremonies, Archbishop ] has said: "Church and state should not be enemies to one another. In these discussions, it's necessary, for instance, to recognize the union of persons of the same sex, because there are many couples that suffer because their civil rights aren't recognized."<ref>National Catholic Reporter, 12 April 2013</ref> ], Archbishop Emeritus of ] has called the legalisation of same-sex civil marriage "a positive evolution", and added that the Church has nothing to say about whether states can legalise civil marriage for gay people<ref>''The Tablet'', 8 June 2013</ref> Cardinal ] the Archbishop of Berlin has also stated: "If two homosexuals take responsibility for each other when they deal permanent and faithful to each other, you have to see it in a similar way as heterosexual relationships."<ref>http://www.kath.net/news/36623</ref> | |||
Over 260 Catholic ]s, particularly from ], ] and ] (including ]), signed in January and February 2011 a ], called '']'', which said that the Church's esteem for marriage and celibacy "does not require the exclusion of people who responsibly live out love, faithfulness, and mutual care in same-sex partnerships or in a remarriage after divorce".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.memorandum-freiheit.de/?page_id=518 |title=Memorandum:Church 2011 |publisher=Memorandum-freiheit.de |accessdate=2011-12-05}}</ref> | |||
[[File:Francisco (20-03-2013).jpg|thumb|right|upright|<center>Whilst maintaining the church's teaching against homosexual acts, Pope Francis has said that gay people should not be marginalized | |||
</center>]] | |||
] too, speaking of homosexual persons, said that "the key is for the church to welcome, not exclude and show mercy, not condemnation." "Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people," he stated, "but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person."<ref></ref> | |||
It has been suggested that Pope Francis, when Archbishop of ], urged fellow Argentine bishops in 2010 to signal the Church's public support for civil unions, as a compromise response to calls for same-sex marriage.<ref>Romero, Simon; Schmall, Emily (19 March 2013). "On Gay Unions, a Pragmatist Before He Was a Pope". New York Times. Retrieved 27 March 2013</ref> This was at the time that Argentina, which already permitted civil unions, was debating a bill to allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, a move that Cardinal Bergoglio strongly opposed as leading to a situation that "can seriously harm the family…At stake is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother and children. At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God."<ref></ref> In a 2010 book written as Archbishop of Buenos Aires with Jewish Rabbi Abraham Skorka (recently published in English), Bergoglio also spoke of same-sex marriage as "a weakening of the institution of marriage, an institution that has existed for thousands of years and is 'forged according to nature and anthropology'."<ref name="ncregister.com"></ref> | |||
In the first days of 2014, Bishop ] of Malta reported that in a private conversation held with Pope Francis in December 2013, he repeated the phrase about same-sex marriage used in the earlier Argentine letter - that it was "an anthropological regression".<ref name="ncregister.com"/> | |||
In January 2014, Pope Francis, in a conversation with leaders of religious orders, spoke of the importance of education in the context of difficulties now facing children; indicating that the Church had a challenge in not being welcoming enough of children brought up in a multiplicity of household arrangements - including the children of gay couples<ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/05/pope-homosexuals-idUSL6N0KF0GG20140105</ref> He mentioned as an example a case of a child with a mother living in a lesbian relationship:''The educator should be up to being a person who educates, he or she should consider how to proclaim Jesus Christ to a generation that is changing. He insisted, therefore: "Education today is a key, key, key mission!" And he recalled some of his experiences in Buenos Aires regarding the preparation necessary to welcome children in an educational context, little boys and girls, young adults who live in complex situations, especially family ones: "I remember the case of a very sad little girl who finally confided to her teacher the reason for her state of mind: 'my mother's fiancée doesn't like me.' The percentage of children studying in schools who have separated parents is very high. The situation in which we live now provides us with new challenges which sometimes are difficult for us to understand. How can we proclaim Christ to these boys and girls? How can we proclaim Christ to a generation that is changing? We must be careful not to administer a vaccine against faith to them."''<ref></ref><ref></ref> | |||
Italian media presented this as "an opening to legal provision for civil unions for gay couples, a subject of debate in Italy". The Director of the Holy See Press Office called this presentation paradoxical and a manipulation of the pope's words, especially since some media reported him as if he were "speaking specifically of homosexual unions", although he was only talking about the difficulties of children, not making a declaration on the debate in Italy.<ref>5 January 2014, ''Vatican denies pope is open to recognition of gay civil unions'', Reuters</ref> | |||
On 5 March 2014, in an interview with the Italian newspaper, '']'', Pope Francis said: "Marriage is between a man and a woman. Secular states want to justify civil unions to regulate different situations of cohabitation, pushed by the demand to regulate economic aspects between persons, such as ensuring health care. It is about pacts of cohabitating of various natures, of which I wouldn’t know how to list the different ways. One needs to see the different cases and evaluate them in their variety."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/transcript-pope-francis-march-5-interview-with-corriere-della-sera/|publisher=Catholic News Agency|accessdate=6 Mar 2014|title=Transcript: Pope Francis' March 5 interview with Corriere della Sera.}}</ref> Some, including ], interpreted this as suggesting that the Catholic Church could tolerate some types of non-marital civil unions as a practical measure for the purposes indicated.<ref></ref> The English-language assistant of the Holy See Press Office stated that "civil unions" is a term that in Italy refers to non-religious marriages by the state, and that, in using it, "Pope Francis spoke in very general terms, and did not specifically refer to same-sex marriage as a civil union".<ref></ref> | |||
===Preparation of the 2014 assembly of the Synod of Bishops=== | |||
On 18 October 2013, the Secretariat of the ] launched its consultation exercise on the topic of its 2014 assembly, by sending out the preparatory document known in ] as the '']'', which outlines topics to be treated and contains a questionnaire meant to provoke responses.<ref name=Reese51></ref> The ''lineamenta'' for the 2014 assembly bore as title the theme of the assembly: "Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization". An article by the BBC described it as an "unprecedented survey of the views of lay Catholics on modern family life and sexual ethics".<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24821843 | work=BBC News | title=Vatican launches world survey on modern family life | date=5 November 2013}}</ref> In fact, all assemblies of the Synod of Bishops are preceded by sending out a ''lineamenta'' document that then generates discussion in the Catholic press.<ref name=Reese51/> The ''lineamenta'' for the 2014 assembly, with a series of 39 questions, was sent as usual to all ]s. Individual conferences hold the consultations in different ways – in preparation for the 2014 assembly the ] and several others launched a public consultation on the Internet. The questionnaire in the ''lineamenta'' for the 2014 assembly asked for local views on a range of issues related to the topic of the upcoming assembly, "pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelization". Since it was the first time time that an assembly of the Synod of Bishops dealt with that topic,<ref>For the topics of previous assemblies, see ].</ref> it was the first time that an assembly ''lineamenta'' included a question on the care to be given to people in same-sex civil unions: "What pastoral attention can be given to people who have chosen to live in these types of union?"<ref></ref> | |||
In February 2014, the German bishops conference published their response that the survey had evoked in their country. They reported that in Germany "the Church's statements on premarital sexual relations, homosexuality, on those divorced and remarried, and on birth control ... are virtually never accepted, or are expressly rejected in the vast majority of cases"; and that there was "a 'marked tendency' among Catholics to accept legal recognition of same-sex unions as 'a commandment of justice' and they felt the Church should bless them, although most did not want gay marriage to be legalised".<ref></ref> | |||
Commenting on these German results and on the findings of a ] published on 15 April 2014 concerning attitudes of the general population in certain countries, ] noted what he called the significant difference that the Pew Research Center survey revealed between the attitudes in some countries of Europe and North America and the rest of the world, and remarked that, in view of the emphasis Pope Francis places on the Church not limiting itself to its old geographical and cultural areas, "it is evident that the Catholicism of Germany cannot be - as is happening to some extent - the universal parameter for changing the teaching and practice of the Church in matters of family, communion for the divorced and remarried, and same-sex marriage."<ref></ref> | |||
On the basis of the responses to the ''lineamenta'', the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops prepared the customary working paper, called in Latin the '']'', for the October 2014 assembly, bringing in extra staff to examine both the official responses to the ''lineamenta'' by episcopal conferences and similar bodies and the unofficial responses from "anyone else who sends in comments".<ref>Reese (1998), p. 53</ref> Participants in the assembly will have at their disposal not only that ''instrumentum laboris'', which is not a draft of a final document but only a text to help focus discussion, but also the entire documentation received. The Secretariat then published the ''instrumentum laboris'' on 26 June 2014, to enable it to be commented on throughout the Catholic Church and even more widely. | |||
The online newspaper '']'' said that the Vatican document "calls on the Church to balance its opposition to same-sex marriage and gay adoption rights by welcoming same-sex couples, and their children, with equal dignity". "While Vatican officials have stressed that Church teachings against same-sex activity would not change under pressure of public opinion," the newspaper reported, "the document said 'many responses' called for 'theological study in dialogue with the human sciences to develop a multi-faceted look at the phenomenon of homosexuality'." It quoted the document's statement that, in the case of requests by people living in same-sex unions for a child's baptism, "almost all the responses emphasise that the child must be received with the same care, tenderness and concern which is given to other children."<ref></ref> ''On Top'' magazine provided the same information in somewhat shorter form.<ref></ref> | |||
Delia Gallagher of CNN noted that the working document firmly rejects same-sex marriage but said the Church's leaders are trying to balance that with "a respectful, non-judgmental attitude towards people living in such unions". It says a person's identity should not be defined by sexuality, so as to "take every aspect of the person into consideration". She too drew attention also to the document's suggestion of a theological study in dialogue with the human sciences and to what it said about reception of children for baptism.<ref></ref> | |||
The opinion expressed by J. Lester Federer, reporting the document's statement of opposition to homosexual unions and opposition to adoption of children by such couples and at the same time its openness to "a respectful, non-judgmental attitude towards people living in such unions" and to baptizing children presented by them, is that the document "could signal a substantial shift in the Catholic Church's approach to the family, including the treatment of same-sex couples".<ref></ref> | |||
], which immediately criticized the working document for adhering rigidly to existing teaching, was one of the beneficiaries of a donation of 200,000 United States dollars from the ] with which to "amplify pro-LGBT voices within the Catholic Church in preparation for significant international gatherings planned by Catholic bishops and the Vatican".<ref></ref> | |||
==Notable gay and bisexual Catholics== | |||
{{expand section|date=September 2014}} | |||
A number of influential Catholic artists of the ] and the ] notable for their religious paintings and sculpture were considered too have been homosexual or bisexual. These include ],<ref>Paul Strathern, The Medici:Godfather of the Renaissance, London, 2003</ref> ],<ref>Jacques Mesnil, Botticelli, Paris, 1938</ref> ]<ref>Michael Rocke, Forbidden Friendships epigraph, p. 148 & N120 p.298</ref> | |||
, and Michelangelo Merisi da ].<ref>Andrew Graham-Dixon, Caravaggio: A life sacred and profane, Penguin, 2011</ref>] was noted for painting the ceiling of the ] under which popes are elected to this day.<ref>Scigliano, Eric: "Michelangelo's Mountain; The Quest for Perfection in the Marble Quarries of Carrara", Simon and Schuster, 2005. Retrieved 27 January 2007</ref> | |||
In Britain, a number of late 19th-century authors were gay or bisexual and converts to Catholicism, among them ], ], ], ], ], ]<ref name="gwoods"/><ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://anglicanhistory.org/academic/hilliard_unenglish.pdf |last=Hilliard |first=David |journal=Victorian Studies |year=1982 |title=Un-English and Unmanly: Anglo-Catholicism and Homosexuality}}</ref> and ].<ref>{{cite book |title=Who's who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II |editor=Robert Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon |last=Hilliard |first=David |chapter=Gray, John |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=zLWTqBmifh0C&pg=PA225 |pages=224–5 |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2002 |isbn=9780415159838}}</ref> These male writers sometimes found, in their Catholicism, a means of writing about their attraction to and desire for relationships with other men. Wilde, who had Catholic tendencies throughout his life and converted on his deathbed, wrote himself in '']'', during his imprisonment and hard labor, as akin to Christ embodying suffering, and invoked Christ's transformative power for the oppressed.<ref>{{Cite book |publisher=Scarecrow Press|title=Unruly Catholics from Dante to Madonna: Faith, Heresy, and Politics in Cultural Studies |year=2013 |first=Frederick S. |last=Roden |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NUlPAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA38}}</ref> Raffalovich compared the physicality and the ecstasy of devotion to Christ to same-sex erotic desire;<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=fWaVZJKoOC0C&pg=PA127 |page=127 |title=Medievalism and the Quest for the Real Middle Ages |chapter=Medieval Religion, Victorian Homosexualities |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |first=Frederick S. |last=Roden}}</ref> Hopkins's work as well is strongly marked by physicality and eroticism in its religious references, and the poet, who was reminded of Christ by other men that he found beautiful, dwelt on the physicality of Christ's body and intimacy of his comfort and love.<ref name="gwoods">{{Cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3rEJ9hpvwlcC&pg=PA170 |title=A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition |last=Woods |first=Gregory |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1999}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gubR7WwQSZUC&pg=PA169 |title=The Split World of Gerard Manley Hopkins: An Essay in Semiotic Phenomenology |first=Dennis |last=Sobolev |year=2011 |publisher=Catholic University of America Press}}</ref> | |||
Jeanine Deckers (d. 1985), was known as ] or Sœur Sourire, and was a Belgian singer-songwriter and at one time a member of the Dominican Order in Belgium as Sister Luc-Gabrielle. After leaving the order, she is reported to have begun a lesbian relationship with Annie Pécher.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars |first=Jeremy |last=Simmonds |publisher=Chicago Review Press |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=bMBf3TYZigQC&pg=PA204 |page=204}}</ref> She herself never admitted being a homosexual,<ref></ref> and she was said to be maintaining a chaste life.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=G6RJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WIQMAAAAIBAJ&pg=876,2772046&dq=jeanine+deckers&hl=en |title='Singing Nun' makes comeback |first=Margaret |last=Gordy|work=Youngstown Daily Vindicator |date= 8 February 1979|accessdate=14 November 2014}}</ref> | |||
] (1888–1963) was a member of the ] <ref>{{cite book |title=Who's who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II |editor=Robert Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon |last=Hilliard |first=David |chapter=Edwards, Albert Augustine |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=zLWTqBmifh0C&pg=PA168 |pages=168–9 |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2002 |isbn=9780415159838}}</ref> | |||
==See also== | |||
{{Portal|Catholicism|LGBT}} | |||
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* ] | |||
* ] | |||
==References== | |||
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}} | |||
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==Further reading== | ||
* {{cite book |
* {{cite book |first=David |last=Berger |title=Der heilige Schein |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TcPOcQAACAAJ |date=November 2010 |publisher=Ullstein |isbn=978-3-550-08855-1}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Cameli |first=L.J. |title=Catholic Teaching on Homosexuality: New Paths to Understanding |publisher=Ave Maria Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-59471-348-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s5xUDwAAQBAJ}} | |||
* {{cite book| author = Kate Saunders|author2=Peter Stanford| title = Catholics and sex| url = http://books.google.com/?id=hRovAAAAYAAJ| date = 1992-04-06| publisher = Vintage| isbn = 978-0-434-67246-2 }} | |||
* {{cite book| |
* {{cite book |first=Atila Sinke |last=Guimarães |title=The Catholic Church and homosexuality |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DYn_AAAACAAJ |date=December 1999 |publisher=TAN Books |isbn=978-0-89555-651-6}} | ||
* {{cite book| |
* {{cite book |first=Kate |last=Saunders |author2=Peter Stanford |title=Catholics and sex |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hRovAAAAYAAJ |date=6 April 1992 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0-434-67246-2}} | ||
* {{cite book| |
* {{cite book |first=Elizabeth |last=Stuart |title=Chosen: Gay Catholic Priests Tell Their Stories |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fCqJAAAAMAAJ |date=July 1993 |publisher=Geoffrey Chapman |isbn=978-0-225-66682-3}} | ||
* {{cite book |first=Eve |last=Tushnet |author-link=Eve Tushnet |title=Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B1sEoQEACAAJ |year=2014 |publisher=Ave Maria Press |isbn=978-1594715426}} | |||
* {{cite book |editor-first=Barbara |editor-last=Zanotti|title=A Faith of One's Own: Explorations by Catholic Lesbians |publisher=Crossing Press |url=https://archive.org/details/faithofonesownex00zano |url-access=registration |quote=catholic lesbians. |year=1986 |isbn=978-0895942098}} | |||
* . BBC News. from the ] on 19 June 2022. Pope Francis: CDF statements "not intended to be a form of unjust discrimination, but rather a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite". | |||
{{Religion and LGBT people|state=collapsed}} | |||
==External links== | |||
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{{Wikiquote}} | |||
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{{Religion and LGBT topics}} | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Homosexuality And Roman Catholicism}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Homosexuality And Roman Catholicism}} | ||
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The relationship between the Catholic Church and homosexuality is complex and often contentious, involving various conflicting views between the Catholic Church and some in the LGBTQ community. According to Catholic doctrine, solely having same-sex attractions itself is not considered inherently sinful; it is the act of engaging in sexual activity with someone of the same sex that is regarded as a grave sin against chastity. The Church also does not recognize nor perform any sacramental marriages between same-sex couples. However, the Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasizes that all same-sex individuals must "be accepted and treated with respect, compassion, and sensitivity," and that all forms of unjust discrimination should be discouraged and avoided at all cost.
The Church's teachings on this issue have developed over time, influenced by papal interventions and theologians, including the early Church Fathers. Pastoral care for LGBTQ Catholics is provided through a variety of official and unofficial channels, varying from diocese to diocese. In recent years, senior clergy and popes have called for the Church to increase its support for LGBTQ individuals.
Globally, the Catholic Church is politically active on LGBTQ rights issues, and its relationship with the LGBTQ community has been particularly strained during critical moments, such as the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Some notable LGBT Catholics, including priests and bishops, have been openly gay or bisexual. Catholic dissenters have argued that legally consensual relations between people of the same-sex is as inherently spiritual and valuable as the same for those of the opposite-sex.
On the other hand, some Catholic organizations and institutions that uphold church teachings on sexual activities campaigned against LGBTQ rights worldwide, advocating for the promotion and encouragement of chastity and celibacy among LGBT Catholics. Pope Francis has taken a notably different approach to these subjects than that of his predecessors. He became the first pope to support granting civil union status for same-sex individuals as a legal protection for same-sex domestic partners. He has also publicly denounced sodomy laws.
Church teaching
The Catholic Church teaches that, as a person does not choose to be either homosexual or heterosexual, subjectively experiencing attraction for (a) person(s) of one's own sex is not inherently sinful. According to the Catholic theology of sexuality, all sexual acts must be open to procreation by nature and express the symbolism of male-female complementarity. Sexual acts between two members of the same sex cannot meet these standards. Homosexuality thus constitutes a tendency towards this sin. The church teaches that gay persons are called to practice chastity.
The church also teaches that gay people "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity", and that "every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided." whilst holding that discrimination in marriage, employment, housing, and adoption in some circumstances can be just and "obligatory." According to the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "homosexual acts" are "grave sins against chastity" and "expressions of the vice of lust." Homosexual acts are included among the grave sins against chastity in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
According to the Catechism, "homosexual acts" (i.e., sexual acts between persons of the same sex) are "acts of grave depravity" that are "intrinsically disordered." It continues, "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." Regarding homosexuality as an orientation, the Catechism describes it as "objectively disordered."
The church points to several passages in the Bible as the basis for its teachings, including Genesis 19:1-11, Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, I Corinthians 6:9, Romans 1:18-32, and I Timothy 1:10. In December 2019, the Pontifical Biblical Commission published a book that included an exegesis on these and other passages.
Research conducted in the fields of social sciences and study of religion indicates that the Catholic Church's teachings on sexuality are "a major source of conflict and distress" to LGBT Catholics.
Same-sex marriage
The church opposes same-sex marriage and is active in political campaigns against it. It also opposes same-sex civil unions and does not bless them, although some priests and bishops have offered blessings for same-sex couples or spoken in favor of priests being able to bless them. Nevertheless, Pope Francis expressed support for civil-unions to protect gay couples in the documentary Francesco (2020), and in a press conference in September 2021. In that press conference, he said: "If a homosexual couple wants to lead a life together, the State has the possibility to give them safety, stability, inheritance; and not only to homosexuals but to all the people who want to live together. But marriage is a sacrament, between a man and a woman".
While the Catholic Church explicitly denies its blessing for marital union between two people of the same sex, the Catechism of the Catholic Church goes into great detail when describing the legitimacy of individuals who identify as gay as beloved children of God.
In March 2021, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that the church cannot bless same-sex relationships because "God cannot bless sin". On 18 December 2023, it published Fiducia supplicans, a declaration allowing Catholic priests to bless people who are not considered to be married by the Church, including same-sex couples.
Blessings for same-sex couples
Main article: Fiducia supplicansIn March 2021, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that the Church can not bless same-sex relationships because "God cannot bless sin". On 25 September 2023, in a responsum to conservative cardinals before the 16th World Synod of Bishops, Francis signalled the Church's openness to blessings for gay couples as long as they did not misrepresent the Catholic view of marriage as between one man and one woman.
On 18 December 2023, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published Fiducia supplicans, a declaration allowing Catholic priests to bless people who are not considered to be married by the Church, including people in same-sex relationships. These were to be "short and simple pastoral blessings (neither liturgical nor ritualized) of couples in irregular situations (but not of their unions)". The declaration does not permit the blessing of the same-sex relationships, only the people within it.
While the declaration was welcomed by many Catholics, it also sparked considerable controversy and criticism, with several bishops' conferences barring the blessings in their jurisdictions or asking priests to refrain from them.
History
Main article: History of the Catholic Church and homosexuality See also: History of Christianity and homosexuality and Catholic Church and HIV/AIDSThe Christian tradition has generally prohibited all sexual activities outside of sexual intercourse. This includes activities engaged in by couples or individuals of either the same or different sexes. The Catholic Church's position specifically on homosexuality developed from the teachings of the Church Fathers, which was in stark contrast to Greek and Roman attitudes towards same-sex relations, including pederasty.
Canon law regarding same-sex sexual activity has been shaped through the decrees issued by a series of ecclesiastical councils. Initially, canons against sodomy were aimed at ensuring clerical or monastic discipline, and were only widened in the medieval period to include laymen. In the Summa Theologica, Saint Thomas Aquinas maintained that homosexual practice was contrary to natural law, arguing that the primary natural end of the sexual act was procreation, and since said procreation is carried out from a process of sexual fertilization between a man and a woman, homosexuality is contrary to the very end of said act. He also stated that "the unnatural vice" is the greatest of the sins of lust. Throughout the Middle Ages, the church repeatedly condemned homosexuality, and often collaborated with civic authorities to punish gay people. Punishment of sexual "vice" as well as religious heresy was seen as strengthening the church's moral authority.
The modern church
In the late 20th century, the Church has responded to gay rights movements by reiterating its condemnation of homosexuality while acknowledging the existence of gay people. In January 1976, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Paul VI published Persona Humana, which codified the teaching against all extra-marital sex, including gay sex. The document stated that acceptance of homosexual activity runs counter to the church's teaching and morality. It drew a distinction between people who were homosexual because of "a false education," "a bad example" or other causes it described as "not incurable," and a "pathological" condition which was "incurable." However, it criticized those who argued that innate homosexuality justified same-sex sexual activity within loving relationships, and stated that the Bible condemned homosexual activity as depraved, "intrinsically disordered," never to be approved, and a consequence of rejecting God.
Earlier, the controversially liberal 1966 Dutch Catechism, which was the first post-Vatican II Catholic catechism and which had been commissioned by the Dutch bishops, had stated that "The very sharp strictures of Scripture on homosexual practices (Gen. 1; Rom. 1) must be read in their context" as condemning a trend for homosexuality among non-gay people, implying that people who were gay were not condemned for homosexual activity.
In October 1986, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a letter addressed to all the bishops of the Catholic Church entitled On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons. This was signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as prefect. The letter gave instructions on how the clergy should deal with, and respond to, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. Designed to remove any ambiguity about permissible tolerance of homosexual orientation resulting from the earlier Persona Humana—and prompted by the growing influence of gay-accepting groups and clergy—the letter was particularly aimed at the church in the United States. It affirmed the position that while homosexual orientation is not in itself a sin, it is nevertheless a tendency towards the "moral evil" of homosexual activity, and therefore must be considered "an objective disorder", which moreover is "essentially self-indulgent" since homosexual sexual acts are not procreative and therefore not genuinely loving or selfless.
The letter also said that accepting homosexual acts as morally equivalent to married heterosexual acts was harmful to the family and society and warned bishops to be on guard against, and not to support, Catholic organizations not upholding the Church's doctrine on homosexuality—groups which the letter said were not really Catholic. This alluded to LGBT and LGBT-accepting Catholic groups such as DignityUSA and New Ways Ministry, and ultimately resulted in the exclusion of Dignity from Church property. The letter condemned physical and verbal violence against gay people but reiterated that this did not change its opposition to homosexuality or gay rights. Its claims that accepting and legalizing homosexual behaviour leads to violence ("neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised" when anti-gay hate crimes increase in the wake of gay civil rights legislation) were seen as controversially blaming gay people for homophobic violence and encouraging homophobic violence. Referring to the AIDS epidemic, the letter, McNeill writes, blamed AIDS on gay rights activists and gay-accepting mental health professionals: "Even when the practice of homosexuality may seriously threaten the lives and well-being of a large number of people, its advocates remain undeterred and refuse to consider the magnitude of the risks involved".
In a statement released in July 1992, "Some Considerations Concerning the Catholic Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons," the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reiterated its position from "On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons," and further stated that discrimination against gay people in certain areas, such as selecting adoptive or foster parents or in hiring teachers, coaches, or military service members, is not unjust, and thus can be permitted in some circumstances.
On 31 October 2023, a document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, responding to questions from José Negri, Bishop of Santo Amaro, said that transgender people could be baptised, be godparents at a baptism, and be witnesses at weddings, so long as such situations would not cause scandal. Moreover, the responses stated that under the prudence of the priest, a cohabiting “homoaffective” Catholic can be a godparent, being understood that where that person is not merely “cohabiting” but notoriously doing so “more uxorio” (i.e. in a sexual relationship), the situation would be “different”. The responses were signed by both Pope Francis and Cardinal Fernández of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Vatican stated that the document "simply clarified church teaching and did not constitute new policy or a change in policy."
Pastoral care for gay Catholics
Main article: Pastoral care for gay CatholicsBeginning in the 1970s, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops taught that gay people "should have an active role in the Christian community" and have called on "all Christians and citizens of good will to confront their own fears about homosexuality and to curb the humor and discrimination that offend homosexual persons. We understand that having a homosexual orientation brings with it enough anxiety, pain and issues related to self-acceptance without society bringing additional prejudicial treatment." In 1997, they published a letter entitled Always Our Children, as a pastoral message to parents of gay and bisexual children with guidelines for pastoral ministers. Reiterating the church's opposition to homosexuality, it told parents not to break off contact with a gay or bisexual son or daughter; they should instead look for appropriate counseling both for the child and for themselves. Gay Catholics, the bishops said, should be allowed to participate actively in the Christian community and, if living chastely, hold leadership positions. It also noted "an importance and urgency" to minister to those with AIDS, especially considering the impact it had on the gay community.
Bishops around the world have held diocesan events with the goal of reaching out to gay Catholics and ministering to them, and more have spoken publicly about the need to love and welcome them into the church. Pope John Paul II asked "the bishops to support, with the means at their disposal, the development of appropriate forms of pastoral care for homosexual persons.” Several assemblies of the Synod of Bishops have struck similar themes, while maintaining that same-sex sexual activity is sinful and that same-sex marriage cannot be permitted. In 2018, in a move regarded as a sign of respect to the community, the Vatican used the acronym LGBT for the first time in an official document. In several public statements, Francis has emphasised the need to accept, welcome, and accompany LGBT people, including LGBT children.
The 2014 Synod on the Family and Synod on the Family in 2015 concerned themselves in part with "accepting and valuing their sexual orientation" and place in Catholic communities, "without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony." The reports of the synods were noted for their unusually mild language towards gay people, such as the lack of use of phrases such as "intrinsically disordered." They also reiterated the church's opposition to same-sex marriage and suggested outreach towards gay people.
Beginning in the 1960s, a number of organizations have formed to minister to LGBT people. Organizations such as Outreach Catholic, DignityUSA and New Ways Ministry, which advocate for the rights of LGBT Catholics and dissent from Church teaching, and Courage International, which encourages Catholics with same-sex attraction to live chastely and accept Church teaching, were established in the United States in response to the push within the United States for greater recognition within the church for gay men and lesbian women. Courage also has a ministry geared towards the relatives and friends of gay people called Encourage. Courage is a recognized apostolate of the Church, while DignityUSA and New Ways Ministry have both been censured by the hierarchy of the American Catholic Church.
Dissent from church teaching
Main article: Dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexualityThere have been practical and ministerial disagreements within the clergy, hierarchy, and laity of the Catholic Church concerning the church's position on homosexuality. Some Catholics and Catholic groups have sought to adopt an approach they consider to be more inclusive. Dissenters argue that the prohibition on extramarital sex emphasizes the physical dimension of the act at the expense of higher moral, personal and spiritual goals and that the practice of total, lifelong sexual denial risks personal isolation. Other arguments include that the teaching violates "the truth of God's unconditional love for all people", and drives "young people away from the Church". Opponents argue that it is preferable to believe that this element of church teaching is mistaken. The opinion of lay Catholics tends to be more supportive of gay marriage than the hierarchy.
Upwards of 70 people have been fired from jobs at Catholic schools or universities because of their marriages to partners of the same sex or, in one case, support for LGBT rights campaigns. When one Jesuit high school refused to fire a teacher after he publicly entered into a gay marriage, the local bishop designated the school as no longer Catholic; the school has appealed his decision. As of 2019, the Holy See has temporarily suspended the bishop's decree.
In response to church policy in the area of safe-sex education, AIDS, and gay rights, some gay rights activists have protested both inside and outside of Catholic churches, sometimes disrupting Masses. This includes at the National Shrine in Washington, at an ordination of priests at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, and during Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York where they desecrated the Eucharist. Others have splattered paint on churches and drenched an archbishop with water. In 1998, Alfredo Ormando died after setting himself on fire outside Saint Peter's Basilica to protest the church's position on homosexuality.
On 9 September 2022, over 80% of German bishops at the Synodal Path supported a document calling for a "re-evaluation of homosexuality" and for making changes to the Catechism. On March 11, 2023, the Synodal Path with support of over 80 percentage of German Roman Catholic bishops allowed blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples in all 27 German Roman Catholic diocese.
Catholic organizations
Further information: Outreach CatholicThe Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organisation, has contributed over $14 million, one of the largest amounts in the United States, to political campaigns against same-sex marriage. The Catholic Medical Association of North America has stated that science "counters the myth that same-sex attraction is genetically predetermined and unchangeable, and offers hope for prevention and treatment." The Church, however, teaches that sexual orientation is not a choice. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, has been criticized for describing the church child sex abuse crisis as a "homosexual" problem rather than a "pedophilia" problem. Donohue based his claim on the fact that most of the incidents involved sexual contact between men and boys rather than between men and girls.
Outreach Catholic is a Jesuit affiliated Catholic media site dedicated to LGBT advocacy. The site was founded by Fr. James Martin SJ under the affiliation of America Magazine, a Jesuit news site. The group hosts a yearly conference to bring LGBT Catholics and allies together in hopes to further dialogue between the Church and LGBT faithful. The site itself hosts a myriad of difference resources, news, and advocacy projects.
Homosexuality in relation to clergy
Main articles: Homosexual clergy in the Catholic Church and Gay bishops § Roman Catholic ChurchHomosexual clergy, and homosexual activity by clergy, are not exclusively modern phenomena, but rather date back centuries. Donald Cozzens estimated the percentage of gay priests in 2000 to be 23–58%, suggesting more homosexual men (active and non-active) within the Catholic priesthood than within society at large.
Instructions from Vatican bodies on admitting gay men to the priesthood have varied over time. In the 1960s chaste gay men were allowed but in 2005, a new directive banned gay men "while profoundly respecting the persons in question."
Although homosexuality was at variance with Catholic teaching during the Middle Ages, official penalties for homosexual behavior within the clergy, both by the church and temporal authorities, were rarely codified or enforced. Historian John Boswell noted that several bishops in the Middle Ages were thought by their contemporaries to have had gay relationships, and noted a potentially romantic or sexual tone to the correspondence of others with "passionate" male friends. Some other historians disagree, and say that this correspondence represents friendship. Although homosexual acts have been consistently condemned by the Catholic Church, some senior members of the clergy have been found or alleged to have had homosexual relationships, including Rembert Weakland, Juan Carlos Maccarone, Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira, and Keith O'Brien. Some popes are documented to have been homosexual or to have had male sexual partners, including Benedict IX, Paul II, Sixtus IV, Leo X, Julius II and Julius III.
Political activity
Main article: Political activity of the Catholic Church on LGBT issuesThe church has historically been politically active in local, national, and international fora on issues of LGBT rights, typically to oppose them in keeping with Catholic moral theology and Catholic Social Teaching.
In various countries, members of the Catholic Church have intervened on occasions both to support efforts to decriminalize homosexuality, and also to ensure it remains an offence under criminal law. The Catholic Church has been described as sending "mixed signals" regarding discrimination based on sexual orientation: a 1992 teaching said that because sexuality "evokes moral concern," sexual orientation is different from qualities such as race, ethnicity, sex, or age, which do not. It added that efforts to "protect the common good" by limiting rights were permissible and sometimes obligatory, and did not constitute discrimination. The church therefore opposes the extension of at least some aspects of civil rights legislation, such as nondiscrimination in public housing, educational or athletic employment, adoption, or military recruitment, to gay men and lesbians. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published a statement that was characterized by two theologians as claiming that "nondiscrimination legislation protecting LGBT people promotes immoral sexual behavior, endangers our children, and threatens religious liberty." It also campaigns against same-sex marriage.
Notable lesbian, gay, and bisexual Catholics
See also: List of LGBT CatholicsThere have been notable gay Catholics throughout history. Writers such as Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas, Marc-André Raffalovich, and Frederick Rolfe, and artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol were influenced by both their Catholicism and their homosexuality. Gay Catholic academics such as John J. McNeill, who was further on expelled from the Society of Jesus in 1987 at the request of the Vatican, and John Boswell have produced work on the history and theological issues at the intersection of Christianity and homosexuality. Some notable LGBT Catholics are or were priests or nuns, such as McNeill, Virginia Apuzzo, and Jean O'Leary, who was a Roman Catholic religious sister before becoming a lesbian and gay rights activist.
See also
- List of Christian denominational positions on homosexuality
- Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination
- Ordination of LGBT Christian clergy
- Pope Francis and LGBT topics
Notes
- See also On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, paragraph 11.
- Supporting bishops are archbishop Reinhard Marx from Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann from Roman Catholic Diocese of Speyer, bishop Franz Jung, from Roman Catholic Diocese of Würzburg, archbishop Heiner Koch from Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Berlin, archbishop Stefan Heße from Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg, bishop Heinrich Timmerevers from Roman Catholic Diocese of Dresden–Meissen, bishop Michael Gerber from Roman Catholic Diocese of Fulda, Gerhard Feige from Roman Catholic Diocese of Magdeburg, bishop Helmut Dieser from Roman Catholic Diocese of Aachen, bishop Heiner Wilmer from Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim, bishop Franz-Josef Hermann Bode from Roman Catholic Diocese of Osnabrück, bishop Felix Genn from Roman Catholic Diocese of Münster, bishop Georg Bätzing from Roman Catholic Diocese of Limburg, bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck from Roman Catholic Diocese of Essen, bishop Stephan Ackermann from Roman Catholic Diocese of Trier, bishop Peter Kohlgraf from Roman Catholic Diocese of Mainz, bishop Gebhard Fürst from Roman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, auxiliary bishop Josef Holtkotte from Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paderborn, auxiliary bishop Karl Borsch from Roman Catholic Diocese of Aachen, auxiliary bishop Ludger Schepers from Roman Catholic Diocese of Essen, auxiliary bishop Christoph Hegge from Roman Catholic Diocese of Münster, auxiliary bishop Gerhard Schneider from Roman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, auxiliary bishop Karl Heinz Diez from Roman Catholic Diocese of Fulda, auxiliary bishop Peter Birkhofer from Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Freiburg, auxiliary bishop Reinhard Hauke from Roman Catholic Diocese of Erfurt, auxiliary bishop Udo Bentz from Roman Catholic Diocese of Mainz, auxiliary bishop Christian Würtz from Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Freiburg, auxiliary bishop Franz Josef Gebert from Roman Catholic Diocese of Trier, auxiliary bishop Heinz Günter Bongartz from Roman Catholic Diocese of Hildesheim, auxiliary bishop Herwig Gössel from Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bamberg, auxiliary bishop Horst Eberlein from Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg, auxiliary bishop Johannes Wübbe from Roman Catholic Diocese of Osnabrück, auxiliary bishop Matthäus Karrer from Roman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, auxiliary bishop Matthias König from Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paderborn, auxiliary bishop Robert Brahm from Roman Catholic Diocese of Trier, auxiliary bishop Thomas Maria Renz from Roman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, auxiliary bishop Ulrich Boom from Roman Catholic Diocese of Würzburg, auxiliary bishop Wilfried Theising from Roman Catholic Diocese of Münster, auxiliary bishop Wilhelm Zimmermann from Roman Catholic Diocese of Essen and auxiliary bishop Wolfgang Bischof from Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.
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- Boswell, John (1980). Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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Further reading
- Berger, David (November 2010). Der heilige Schein. Ullstein. ISBN 978-3-550-08855-1.
- Cameli, L.J. (2012). Catholic Teaching on Homosexuality: New Paths to Understanding. Ave Maria Press. ISBN 978-1-59471-348-4.
- Guimarães, Atila Sinke (December 1999). The Catholic Church and homosexuality. TAN Books. ISBN 978-0-89555-651-6.
- Saunders, Kate; Peter Stanford (6 April 1992). Catholics and sex. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-434-67246-2.
- Stuart, Elizabeth (July 1993). Chosen: Gay Catholic Priests Tell Their Stories. Geoffrey Chapman. ISBN 978-0-225-66682-3.
- Tushnet, Eve (2014). Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith. Ave Maria Press. ISBN 978-1594715426.
- Zanotti, Barbara, ed. (1986). A Faith of One's Own: Explorations by Catholic Lesbians. Crossing Press. ISBN 978-0895942098.
catholic lesbians.
- Catholic Church 'cannot bless same-sex unions'. BBC News. Archived from the Wayback Machine on 19 June 2022. Pope Francis: CDF statements "not intended to be a form of unjust discrimination, but rather a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite".
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