Dear Michael:

Thank you for the courage to ask your question. I praise God that you have come to know the truth about homosexuality, the sin of homosexual sexual relations, and have the desire to please God and obey the Church on these matters.

Let me first offer a review on the teaching of the Church on homosexuality from the Catechism:

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.

As mentioned by the Catechism the psychological dynamics attended to homosexual orientation are complex and still a mystery and offer the person with these tendencies a great trial in society, in their personhood, their psychology, and their spirituality.

It is possible to be healed of the homosexual tendencies. Many people have been healed of this. For those who do not find healing, God calls such persons to live a chaste life and to offer the suffering up to Him.

Why are some healed and others not? We cannot really know that. For some the psychological dynamics may be so deep to make it extraordinarily difficult to overcome. There may be many reasons. God may heal anyone at anytime, of course, but often He allows us to suffer because that is what is needed for our souls.

I know that I have never been closer to God than I am now as a disabled person. People have asked me if I would like them to pray for my healing. I reply, "No, rather pray for God's will to be done." I would rather remain in pain and suffering from my disabilities and chronic illnesses and be close to God than to be healed and whole, take the healing for granted, and fall away from God.

Sometimes remaining in suffering is the best thing that can happen to us for the sake of our soul.

Thus, all of us, no matter what our afflictions need to come to a point of accepted who they are, even as a person who is suffering, and live the Christ-life in honor of our Lord and in love of our Lord and our neighbor anyway despite the suffering.

This is no easy task, but it is one that all of us must pursue. This is often assisted by support groups and friends who understand. For people struggling with homosexuality there is an organization and support group to help. It is called Courage. This group can do a lot to help you. Many people who have come to the Courage Apostolate have found healing. Those who have not been healed have found a healing of soul in the midst of their afflictions.

There are two other resources that may be helpful, depending upon a person's circumstances. The Courage Apostolate would be the first to check out, however. Those other resources is the Catholic Support Group for Sexual Addiction Recovery. This support group is facilitated by me on this website. It is closed at the moment, but should be back in operation in January. Those who attend this support group have included all sorts of people with habitual sexual problems or sexual addiction including problems involving pornography, masturbation, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, etc. In past years this group has been helpful to many people.

The other resource that can be helpful involves spiritual warfare. It is always possible that a demonic influence can be present with people who express homosexual tendencies. THIS DOES NOT MEAN that homosexuals are "possessed" or anything like that, nor does it even mean that one's homosexual tendencies were caused by demons (though that is a possibility). Quite often demons like to hitchhike on problems that already exist. Demons can see a problem in a person's life and decide to hop onto the problem to make it worse than it has to be, or to interfere with the healing of the problem. Demons do this with all sorts of problems such as employment situations, marital relations (they love to interfere on this one), financial problems, etc.; it is not just on sexual issues.

On this aspect of things our St. Padre Pio Center for Deliverance Counseling can be helpful. There is a HELP section that offers advice for self-help. We also have a Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog that contains prayers useful in various circumstances. Personal consultation and deliverance counseling is also available.

Thus, live the best Catholic life you can. Attend Mass as often as possible, go to Confession at least once per month or more often if needed, go before the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle to adore our Lord and to sit in the rays of the Son, develop devotions to patron saints, pray for deliverance from these homosexual tendencies, avoid the near occasion of sin, avoid the draw of temptation by distracting yourself with some other activity for a few minutes to let the temptation pass. In otherwords, do all the things that a good and devoted Catholic does. The Sacraments and the devotions are there to help you and me and everyone to overcome and avoid sin and to find healing and freedom.

Check out the Courage Apostolate.

We will be in prayer for you. Remember God loves you and He understands your situation and knows your heart.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary