Adam Domingo, MGL

2013 17412

Identify and explain the implications of 4 aspects of the contemporary Catholic teaching about
homosexuality.

Definition
Homosexuals are people who, in their sexuality, are drawn to a relationship with another
person of the same sex (either solely or mostly towards the same sex).1 It is important to emphasize
that the Church does not equate homosexuality with homosexual acts the same way that She does
not equate ones sexuality with just the sexual acts. This implies that homosexuality is not merely a
carnal desire of being sexually united with the person of the same sex but something that is an
integral dimension of the whole humanity of the homosexual person, i.e. the means by which the
person expresses and lives human love within him/herself and towards others. Therefore,
immediately judging a homosexual person as someone who solely longs for and engages in same-sex
intercourse is wrong. Not only does this naively equate the persons sexuality with the sexual act but
it also reduces the person to a creature whose humanity is defined by the carnal instinct of having
sexual intercourse.2
Intrinsically Disordered
It has always been held within the Catholic tradition that homosexual acts are intrinsically
disordered.3 In the present English language, the word disorder means messed up or in chaos.
However, the original Latin term used here does not mean the same as the contemporary English
meaning, rather simply as something which is directed to an end other than the proper end.
Human sexual intercourse have two proper ends and these ends we can actually recognize
through our own reasoning as per what we observe in our natures as humans (natural law): 1) Union

Catechism of the Catholic Church, English translation (1994), n.2357. The Church also recognizes that
homosexuality is something that has always been present in the human culture and has been expressed in
different ways in different times and in different places, though its exact genetic or psychological origins of it is
unknown.
2
Bishops Committee on Marriage and Family. Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of
Homosexual Children and Suggestions to Pastoral Ministers (2003).
3
Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2358.

Adam Domingo, MGL

2013 17412

and 2) Possibility of a new life (between male and female). Homosexual acts are intrinsically
disordered because they can only lead to one of the ends and not to the other, that is, to union but
not to new life. It is in this sense that homosexual acts are contrary to natural law.4 Because of this,
the Catholic Church cannot approve of these acts (in fact, no one can, if they take the contrariness of
the acts to natural law seriously).5
Notice also that what is referred to as intrinsically disordered are the acts and not the
homosexual person. This is also reiterated in paragraph 2358 when it refers to the homosexual
inclination as objectively disordered (the SUBJECT, the homosexual, is NOT DISOREDERED, but the
object, i.e. the homosexual act). When the Church talks about the person, all She says are words of
care and respect towards them as will be discussed hereafter.
The Homosexual Person
The Church recognizes within her body and worldwide that the number of homosexual men
and women is quite large. 6Homosexuality is very hard for these people. It constitutes a trial for
them in many sense (unacceptance from within and without, disillusionment about their identity,
etc.). 7
Because of this awareness, the Church holds very strongly that these people are to be
accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity [and] every sign of unjust discrimination in their
regard should be avoided.8

It is also this sense that the final portion of paragraph 2357 talks abot. What it refers to as genuine affective
and sexual complementarity is the ability of sexual act to lead to new life. In no way does it say that
homosexuals having sexual intercourse are not doing so in proper affection.
5
Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2358.
6
Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2358.
7
Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2358. It has been recounted in class, for example, that it is an
observation of the lecturer that NO ONE has ever come to realize that they are homosexual and found it easy.
While this observation is based on personal experience of the lecturer in terms of her encounter with
homosexual men and women, I believe it is an experience shared by many others who have gay friends or
family members or who have ministered or currently ministers to gay people.
8
Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2358.

Adam Domingo, MGL

2013 17412

The Catholic Church can never give approval to homosexual acts, but she also ensures that
homosexuals are not to be treated badly, that they are to be seen as human beings worthy of
respect. No one has the right to judge homosexual people, particularly in terms of their state of
grace. Every single act or thought of discrimination, therefore, is highly unacceptable.
Fellow Human Beings Called to Union with God
The Church emphasizes that homosexuals are fellow human beings who are called to a
common vocation of being in union with God and fulfilling Gods will in their lives.9 Christian
homosexuals are further invited to really unite themselves to the selflessness of Christ and his
mission.
Homosexuals therefore are not discriminated in the Churchs teachings. In fact, their
equality with heterosexuals are emphasized. This is very evident in the call to chastity for example.
Homosexuals are called to chastity, i.e. to live their sexuality according to their state of life maturely
and responsibly10, as much as heterosexual persons are.11

Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2359.

Bishops Committee on Marriage and Family. Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of
Homosexual Children and Suggestions to Pastoral Ministers (2003).
11
The Bishops Committee on Marriage and Family in the document Always our Children also mentions
that part of living chastely, whether one is heterosexual or homosexual, is to accept that sexual intercourse
fully symbolizes the design of the Creator (for it as an act of covenant love with the potential of co-creating
new life) only when it is done within marriage. Therefore, the sexual act outside marriage, whether
heterosexual or homosexual, are objectively disordered.
10