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Question Title Posted By Question Date
How does God feel about gay/lesbians Peggy Saturday, August 23, 2008

Question:

I have been having debates with a friend I met through another Catholic website online - I think we are agreeing to just disagree. I told her I felt that God condemned homosexuality. She seems to feel that any sexual sins are not as bad as the Catholic Church makes them out to be and that she has learned this train of thought from studying Francicans and Jesuits. (she highly praises Richard Rohr. ) If I may post a recent answer from her:


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"My concept of God is that He is not as judgmental as many say. I studied the concept of God with both the Franciscan and Jesuits, and learned from both that according to Greek NT translations, much of this has been distorted. Take homosexuality, for example -- it is usually translated to mean that God hates homosexuality, though He of course loves homosexuals. In the original writings, the word used that is now translated as "homosexual" meant "homosexual who had indiscriminate sex". It was distinguished from just "homosexual." So, the condemnation of homosexuality is, by some schools of theological thought, taken completely out of context as a mistranslation. I don't agree that homosexuals/lesbians who are in committed, loving relationships, placing God central in their lives, are at all condemned. I know we disagree here.

And about sexual sins being "lesser", that is something I also learned from the Franciscans and Jesuits. The Church has emphasized these sins over the years to control their adherents -- much like they have imposed celibacy on too many who have not received this charism. The larger sins in translation have always been inhospitality, judgmentalism, lack of compassion, etc.

(end of her comments)
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I feel we are all called to live a chaste pure life. I have to behave myself and so does everyone else who is not married.

I wold love to hear your opinion here Bro. Ignatius, as you always know what to say. I think they are twisting the truth to justify their own actions...Just how many gays/lesbians actually ARE in committed relationships...where does one draw the line as to when one relationship ends and another begins (as long as they are "in love") This is moral relativism at its worst--and what is bringing the world to damnation.

I love your website



Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Peggy:

Thank you for your kind words. I praise God that this site has been helpful to you.

Well, my opinion is that if she really did learn this from some Jesuit and Franciscan that those teachers have risked their soul to hell.

What is not opinion is the Church teaching on homosexual sex and all sex outside of marriage.

Chastity and homosexuality

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

And on other sexual sins:

Offenses against chastity

2351 Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes.

2352 By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action." "The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose." For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of "the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved."

To form an equitable judgment about the subjects' moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.

2353 Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.

2354 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.

2380 Adultery refers to marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations - even transient ones - they commit adultery. Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire. The sixth commandment and the New Testament forbid adultery absolutely. The prophets denounce the gravity of adultery; they see it as an image of the sin of idolatry.

2381 Adultery is an injustice. He who commits adultery fails in his commitment. He does injury to the sign of the covenant which the marriage bond is, transgresses the rights of the other spouse, and undermines the institution of marriage by breaking the contract on which it is based. He compromises the good of human generation and the welfare of children who need their parents' stable union.

Other offenses against the dignity of marriage

2387 The predicament of a man who, desiring to convert to the Gospel, is obliged to repudiate one or more wives with whom he has shared years of conjugal life, is understandable. However polygamy is not in accord with the moral law." [Conjugal] communion is radically contradicted by polygamy; this, in fact, directly negates the plan of God which was revealed from the beginning, because it is contrary to the equal personal dignity of men and women who in matrimony give themselves with a love that is total and therefore unique and exclusive." The Christian who has previously lived in polygamy has a grave duty in justice to honor the obligations contracted in regard to his former wives and his children.

2388 Incest designates intimate relations between relatives or in-laws within a degree that prohibits marriage between them. St. Paul stigmatizes this especially grave offense: "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you . . . for a man is living with his father's wife. . . . In the name of the Lord Jesus . . . you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. . . . " Incest corrupts family relationships and marks a regression toward animality.

2389 Connected to incest is any sexual abuse perpetrated by adults on children or adolescents entrusted to their care. The offense is compounded by the scandalous harm done to the physical and moral integrity of the young, who will remain scarred by it all their lives; and the violation of responsibility for their upbringing.

2390 In a so-called free union, a man and a woman refuse to give juridical and public form to a liaison involving sexual intimacy.

The expression "free union" is fallacious: what can "union" mean when the partners make no commitment to one another, each exhibiting a lack of trust in the other, in himself, or in the future?

The expression covers a number of different situations: concubinage, rejection of marriage as such, or inability to make long-term commitments. All these situations offend against the dignity of marriage; they destroy the very idea of the family; they weaken the sense of fidelity. They are contrary to the moral law. The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion.

2391 Some today claim a "right to a trial marriage" where there is an intention of getting married later. However firm the purpose of those who engage in premature sexual relations may be, "the fact is that such liaisons can scarcely ensure mutual sincerity and fidelity in a relationship between a man and a woman, nor, especially, can they protect it from inconstancy of desires or whim." Carnal union is morally legitimate only when a definitive community of life between a man and woman has been established. Human love does not tolerate "trial marriages." It demands a total and definitive gift of persons to one another.

My question is what part of this do those teachers and this person not understand? And, even if this person was taught wrongly by the Jesuit and Franciscan she has a personal duty to seek and to obey the truth. What I just posted is available to her and these quotes from the Catechism TRUMP the mere opinions of these Jesuits and Franciscans.

This teaching on sex is not an invention of the Church, but is the teaching of God. These teachings are based upon both the natural law and divine law. They are not up for discussion.

The moral order and purpose of sex was invented by God. The Church merely repeats the teaching. The teaching of God as reveal to us in the Bible is clear about these issues. All sex outside of the marriage of a man and a woman is disordered and evil. 

The idea the Church invented the moral law on sexuality to control the populace is such utter nonsense that even a person with an IQ of 25 ought to see it. That's my opinion.

As far as whether sexual sins are as bad as the Church teaches, there are certainly sins that are worse. Beating up a little old lady to steal her Social Security check is worse than fornication I think. But so what. A felony is a felony.

In the old days the Church used the word "crime" to refer to mortal sins. That that is an accurate term. Crime is an offense against society and the person. Moral Crime is an offense against God, society, and the person.

Sure, there are some felonies worse than others, but a felony is a felony. If a person dies with a felony on there soul he goes to hell. It does not matter if the felony was small or big.

Those Jesuits and Franciscans will stand before God to account for their errant teaching. This friend, however, is not off the hook. She has access to the true teaching of the Church and will be held accountable to it.

As for agreeing to disagree? No. You cannot agree to disagree on this. This is dogmatic and infallible teaching of the Church. There can be no disagreement.

To agree to disagree with error is to allow the error to be on the same level of dignity as the Truth. Such error has no dignity and should never be allowed to entertain the same level of dignity as Truth.

We can agree to disagree on which is better apples or oranges, Chevy's or Fords, but there can be no agree to disagree on Truth. The woman is wrong. Period.

We will certainly be in prayer for her (and you as you deal with her) and for those teachers who taught this women evil.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary


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