Blue Tooth said:
I think it can be shown without too much difficulty that Homosexuality has been evidenced in human behaviour since the year dot...completely natural.
My understanding of the Catholic Church's position is that it's not OK in the same way that sex with contraception is not OK. ie: it's not procreative.
I don't agree with either position but I am sure that is the thinking behind it.
Contraception
The Catholic church has strongly condemned all artificial methods of Contraception (a position also held by most Protestant churches up to 1930, when the Anglican church voted for change). This includes the contraceptive pill, condoms and also medical procedures such as Vasectomy and Sterilisation. Infact the church regards contraception as mortally sinful. The official position is stated in the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae , issued by Pope Paul VI in 1968.
"Therefore We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children. Equally to be condemned, as the magisterium of the Church has affirmed on many occasions, is direct sterilization, whether of the man or of the woman, whether permanent or temporary."
"Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation - whether as an end or as a means."
Humanae Vitae
The act of Sexual intercourse is considered to have two functions:
Unitive - the couple become one flesh.
Procreative - the sexual act creates the possibility of conception.
In Catholic thinking, these two functions cannot be separated, and thus each act of sexual intercourse must be open to the possibility of new life. In effect, the avoidance of contraception is seen as an act allowing God to decide whether or not conception will take place.
Though the Catholic church rejects contraception, it does encourage a responsible attitude amongst couples in their spacing of births. It permits what is known as Natural family planning (NFP), which is a method whereby intercourse is avoided on those days when a woman is at the most fertile phase of her menstrual cycle. NFP can be taught by a specialist practitioner and success rates of well over 90% are claimed when the method is correctly followed.
"Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favour the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible is intrinsically evil."
"Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality..."
Paragraph 2370, CCC.
Homosexuality
The Catholic view is that all Homosexual acts are morally and intrinsically wrong and thus the church requires people with Homosexual leanings to remain celibate. It also encourages proper respect as human beings for all Homosexual people, being opposed to any form of discrimination and persecution of Homosexuals.
"Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex... Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved."
"The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible... They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided..."
"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."
Paragraphs 2357-9, CCC.
The church distinguishes between Homosexual acts and Homosexual leanings - the latter may not be necessarily sinful. In 1986, the church issued its "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons", explaining this distinction:
"Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder."
In 2005, the church issued its "Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders". The policy states that those men with "deeply rooted homosexual tendencies" cannot be ordained under any circumstances.
