Homosexuality is discussed in Catholic moral theology under two forms: homosexual orientation is regarded as an "objective disorder" because Catholicism views it as "commanded against intrinsic moral crime", but without sin unless it is acted upon. Homosexual sexual activity, on the other hand, is seen as "moral disturbance" and "homosexual acts" are seen as "contrary to the laws of nature." They close sexual acts against the gift of life, they do not proceed from the affective and sexual complementary sincere. "However, gay people should be accepted with" respect, compassion, and sensitivity, every sign of unjust discrimination in their case should be avoided. "
The Catholic Church teaches that marriage can be done only between men and women, and opposes the introduction of same-sex marriage and same-sex marriage. Prominent figures in the Church have campaigned against same-sex marriages, same-sex trade unions, and other LGBT issues. The Church is of the opinion that same-sex trade unions are an unfortunate environment for children and that the legalization of such unions is harmful to society.
Some Church leaders oppose the decriminalization of homosexual activity in certain countries, and oppose the proposed UN call for the decriminalization of global homosexuality. However, in other countries, and once again at the UN, the church has opposed criminalization - reflecting various opinions within the global church. Despite the official position of the Catholic hierarchy on LGBT rights, in some locations, such as North America, Northern Europe and the West, support for same-sex marriages is stronger among Catholics than among the general public.
Video Catholic Church and homosexuality
Church Teaching
Catholic teaching condemns homosexual acts as very moral, while holding that gay people "should be received with respect, compassion, and sensitivity", and "any sign of unjust discrimination in that they should be avoided." "The Catholic Church argues that, beyond one's choice, to be homosexual not guilty or sinful in its own right, but as such it is objectively wrong for unmarried heterosexuals to engage in sex, as well as homosexual acts are considered wrong. "
Maps Catholic Church and homosexuality
History of the Catholic Church and homosexuality
The Christian tradition generally prohibits any and all noncoital genital activity, whether committed by spouses or individuals, regardless of whether they are of the same or different gender. The position of the Catholic Church in particular on homosexuality is developed from the teachings of the Church Fathers, which are very different from the Greek and Roman attitudes toward same-sex relationships including "homosexual (usually erotic) relationships between adult males and adult males or puberty. "It's called pederasty.
Canon's law of same-sex sexual activity is primarily shaped by decrees issued by a number of ecclesiastical councils. Initially, the canon against sodomy aims to ensure the clerical or monastic discipline, and only expanded in the medieval period to include the layman.
In Summa Theologica , St. Thomas Aquinas states that "unnatural nature" is the greatest of the sins of lust. In January 1976, Pope Paul VI published a homily, Persona Humana: Declaration on Certain Questions about Sexual Ethics, which prohibits sex outside of marriage, including gay sex, but homosexuality is not mentioned in the letters of the pope to the Pope John Paul II's Veritatis Splendor in 1993. In the teaching of John Paul II, homosexual relationships are done by choice of will, unlike homosexual orientation, which he admits is usually not a matter of free choice.
Pastoral care for gay Catholics
In the 1980s, Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York City saw the need for a ministry that would help gay Catholics to live celibate. Cooke invited John Harvey to New York to start Courage International work with Benedict Groeschel, from Friart of the Franciscan Renewal. The first meeting was held in September 1980 at Shrine of Mother Seton in South Ferry, and chapters have been established in other countries. This group generally consists of lay people and lay women usually under anonymous wisdom, together with a pastor, to encourage members not to act on their sexual desires and to live cruelly in accordance with Catholic Church teachings on homosexuality ".
In October 2016, Robert W. McElroy, the Bishop of San Diego held a diocesan synod on families calling for improved services to gay and lesbian Catholics. In 2017, Jefferson City diocese, Missouri says it will allow transgender students in Catholic schools.
In June 2017, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the Newark Archbishop of the United States, held a special "Pilgrimage" Mass for LGBT Catholics from all over New York and five dioceses in New Jersey at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart Cathedral. Many of the audience married same-sex couples, and participated in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. It was reported, however, that Tobin later received a number of hate mails from Catholics against the move. The director of New Ways Ministry pointed out that this is a positive first step, in contrast to the decades-old church leadership "so silent, unwilling to dialogue, and unwilling to pray with Catholic L.G.B.T." The event is hosted by gay ministries in the Church of the Sacred Heart in South Plainfield, New Jersey, and Blessed Blood Church at Monmouth Beach. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago also suggested that the Catholic Church should respect and use words such as "gay" and "lesbian" as a more effective way of reaching the LGBT community.
In May 2014, Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta attended an event organized by the Catholic gay rights group, Drachma, to mark International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia. In Ireland, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin reacted to concern over anti-gay comments in the media by saying that "anyone who does not show love for gays and lesbians insults the Lord." They are not only homophobic if they do that - they are actually Godophobic because God loves every one of them. "
However, Francis's influence as Pope over the last few years has seen a gradual shift in the care of LGBT devotees toward a more benign attitude in some dioceses. For example, in the US in April 2016, the Kentucky Bishop of Kentucky, John Stowe, spoke at a national conference of the New Ministry and indicated that he admires and respects LGBT people who remain true to the church even though the church is not always as welcoming. In 2017, Pdt. James Martin, a Jesuit priest in the United States published "Building Bridges: How the Catholic Church and the Community L.G.B.T. Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity." In the book, Martin describes several ways that each side can treat others more generously: for example, calling on church leaders to use terms such as "gay" and "LGBT," rather than phrases like "engrossed in interest Same-sex." He also argues that expecting an innocent lifestyle of gay Catholics, but not from other groups, is a form of "unjust discrimination" and that gay people should not be dismissed for marrying same-sex couples. Cardinal Joseph Tobin and Cardinal Kevin Farrell contributed parts of this book. However, a number of Catholic institutes, including The Theological College in Washington, The Order of the Holy Sepulcher in New York, and Cafod in the UK subsequently canceled the event in which Martin would speak after pressure from conservative Catholics threatening to withhold funding.. Robert McElroy, Bishop of San Diego, united to support Martin and criticized those who tried to slander him and distort his writings.
Differences from official Church teachings
There are a number of practical disagreements and ministries in the clergy and hierarchy of the Catholic Church regarding the Church's position on homosexuality. Some Catholic and Catholic groups seek to adopt a more inclusive approach.
These individuals and groups make a general argument that the Catholic Church's line on homosexuality emphasizes the physical dimension of action at the expense of higher moral, personal and spiritual goals. Gay men and lesbians also feel that total practice, lifelong sexual denial is at risk of personal isolation. John J. McNeill writes that because gay people experience their sexual orientation as being created naturally, to believe that it is a tendency towards evil will require believing in a sadistic God; and that it is better to believe that the element of the teaching of the Church is wrong in declaring that God will behave in such a way.
In some cases, priests or laity have been dismissed from work at Catholic schools or universities for their support for LGBT rights campaigns or their marriages to same-sex couples. In the United States, more than 50 people have reported losing their jobs in Catholic institutions since 2010 over their sexual orientation or identity, according to New Ways Ministries
1970s
One of the first pastors who publicly appeared to be gay was Jesuit Robert Carter, when he helped establish the National Gay Task Force in New York in 1973. Carter remained a minister and was never formally disciplined. He also helped establish the DignityUSA chapter in New York, with Pastor John McNeill. In 1985 he counseled AIDS patients at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, and later became an outpatient of an outpatient AIDS program at the Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan.
In 1976, John J. McNeill, an American Jesuit and one of the founders of Dignity, published Church and Homosexual, against the Church's ban on same-sex activities. It argues for a change in Church teaching and that homosexual relationships should be judged on the same standards as heterosexual relations. The work had been granted permission from Jesuit McNeill's superior before it was printed. In 1977, the permit was withdrawn at the behest of the Vatican, and McNeill was ordered by Cardinal Franjo not to write or speak publicly about homosexuality. In a statement McNeill responded that "gay men are most likely to act to meet their sexual needs in an unsafe, compulsive way, and therefore expose themselves to the HIV virus, instead those who have internalized the self-hatred imposed by religion their religion in them. "In 1986, the Society of Jesus later dismissed him for the" prolonged disobedience "of the order. He remained a priest until his death but was not allowed to utter Mass.
In 1977, a collective theological study of human sexuality was published, having been commissioned in 1972 by the Catholic Theological Society of America. The community, however, disapproved of research after members of the board of directors criticized the scholarship. In his book Breaking Faith: Pope, People and Catholic Fate John Cornwell says the theology contained in this work broadens Vatican II's focus on the purpose of procreation and the unity of marital sexuality, to emphasize the creative and integrative aspects. He criticized the "simplification of St. Thomas's natural law theory," and argued that "Homosexuals enjoy the same rights and assume the same obligations as the heterosexual majority." This book shows that differences of opinion from the Church's teaching on sexuality are common among US theologians. The reaction to the publication shows that the dissent is not unanimous, even within the Catholic Theological Society of America itself.
Two of the most notable supporters for a more accepting position on homosexuality within Catholic groups were Salvatorian priests, Robert Nugent and Sister of the Notre Dame School, Jeannine Gramick, who founded the New Ways Ministry in 1977. This was in response to Bishop Francis Mugavero of Brooklyn which has invited them to reach out to "new ways" for lesbian and gay Catholics. In early February 1976, Mugavero issued a pastoral letter entitled "Sexuality: God's Gift", defend the legitimate rights of all people, including those who are gay and lesbian. He said they were "misunderstood and sometimes unfair discrimination". In addition to gay and lesbian Catholics, the letter also speaks to divorced widows, teenagers, and those who have had sexual intercourse outside of marriage, stating: "We promise our willingness to help you... to try to find new ways to communicate the righteousness of Christ because we believe it will free you. "These sentiments inspired pastoral efforts by the founders to build bridges between various constituents in Catholicism.
1980s
In 1981, New Ways Ministry held its first national symposium on homosexuality and the Catholic Church, but Archbishop James Hickey of Washington, D.C. wrote to bishops and the Catholic community, asking them not to support the event. Nevertheless, more than fifty Catholic groups support the program.
In 1983 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith tried unsuccessfully to block the publication of Nugent's book, Challenge to Love: Gay and Catholic Lesbians in the Church , even though Cardinal Ratzinger managed to force Bishop Walter Sullivan of Richmond to remove his name from it. In May 1999 both Nugent and Grammick were formally disciplined when the Congregation imposed a lifetime ban on any pastoral work involving gay men, stating that their position was advancing "not faithfully communicating the clear and continuing teachings of the Catholic Church" and "having causing confusion among Catholics ". The Vatican's move made Nugent and Gramick "liberal folk heroes", where formal teaching was seen as obsolete and lacking compassion.
Similarly, American bishops Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit and Matthew Clark of Rochester, New York were criticized for their association with New Ways Ministry, and their distortion of the theological concept of "Conscience of the Heart" as an alternative to the actual teaching of the Catholic Church.
In 1984, Cardinal Ratzinger asked Archbishop Gerety of Newark to withdraw his legitimacy from Sexual Morality by Philip S. Keane, and the Paulist Press ceased publication. Keane has stated that homosexuality should not be considered completely immoral but only "if the action is placed without a proportional reason". The Catholic tradition has suffered "historical distortions", Keane argues, and should "always be open to better expression".
In a letter from July 25, 1986, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith rebuked the moral theologian Charles Curran for his published work and informed the American Catholic University in Washington that he was "no longer deemed fit or eligible to perform the function of a Catholic theology professor". Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Prefect of the Congregation, expressed the hope that "this regrettable, but necessary, outcome to the lessons of the Congregation may move you to reconsider your disagreeing positions and fully accept the teachings of the Catholic Church." Curran has been critical of a number of Catholic Church teachings, including his opinion that homosexual acts in the context of a committed relationship are good for homosexual people. The event "widened the gulf" between Catholic episcopacy and academics in the United States.
Also in 1986, Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle was required to transfer authority over homosexual service to his archbishop. Hunthausen had previously been investigated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for allowing Dignity, an association for gay Catholics, to hold Mass at the Seattle cathedral on the grounds that: "They are Catholics too, they need a place to pray." As a result, according to John L. Allen, "the bishops have been given notice that pastoral care for homosexuals, unless based on a clear condemnation of homosexual behavior, invites serious problems with Rome". In the same year Cardinal Ratzinger wrote to Bishop Matthew Clark of Rochester instructing him to remove his imprimatur from a book addressed to parents talking to children, The Parents of Love Talk: The Catholic Handbook on Sexuality written by Father Matthew Kawiak and Susan Sullivan, and which includes information on homosexuality.
2000s
In 2013 in England and Wales, 27 prominent Catholics (especially theologians and priests) issued an open letter supporting the government's move to introduce same-sex civil marriage. This group includes James Alison, Tina Beattie, and Kevin T. Kelly.
In January 2018, German bishop Franz-Josef Bode of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Osnabröck said in an interview with German journalists that uniform blessing of unions in Roman Catholic churches in Germany is possible, as did German Cardinal Reinhard Marx in February 2018.
In 2006, Father Bernard Lynch became the first Catholic priest to conduct a civil partnership in the Republic of Ireland. He previously had a blessed relationship in a ceremony in 1998 by an American Cistercian monk. He was then expelled from his religious order in 2011 and officially married her husband in 2016.
In 2012, a group of sixty-three former Catholic priests in the US publicly announced their support for Referendum 74, which will make Washington the seventh country to legalize marriage between same-sex couples. In a statement, they said: "We are not happy with the aggressive efforts of Catholic bishops against the R-74 and want to support 71 percent of Catholics (Religious Research Institutions) that support civil marriage for gays as legitimate Catholic positions."
In October 2014, Wendelin Bucheli, a priest in BÃÆ'¼rglen in western Switzerland, was removed from his diocese by a local bishop after blessing the lesbian couple. He said he had discussed it with other members of the clergy before making a decision to acknowledge the relationship.
James Alison, a pastor who was formerly a member of the Dominican Order and in England, also argues that the doctrine of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Pastoral Care of Homosexuals about gay men is incompatible with the Gospel, and states that "it can not actually be teachings of the Church. " In the Truth Question , Dominican priest Gareth Moore stated that "no good argument, whether from Scripture or the laws of nature, against what came to be known as homosexual relationships. The argument put forward to show that such a relationship is immoral is bad. "
Lay opinions
US.
The United States has the fourth largest Catholic population in the world. Catholic support for gay rights in this country is higher than other Christian groups and the general population. A spokesman for DignityUSA stated that Catholic support for gay rights is due to the religious tradition of social justice, the importance of family, and better education.
In 2003, less than 35% of American Catholics supported same-sex marriage. However, a report by the Institute for Public Religion Research on the situation in 2013 found that during the decade support for same-sex marriage has increased by 22 percentage points among Catholics to 57%: 58% among white Catholics, 56% Hispanic, with whites. Catholics are more likely to offer "strong" support. Among Catholics who are ordinary congregations, 50% supported, 45% opposed.
A 2011 report by the same organization found that 73% of American Catholics favor anti-discrimination laws, 63% support gay rights to serve openly in the military, and 60% support allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. The report also finds Catholics becoming more critical than other religious groups about how their church handles the problem.
As of June 2015, data from Pew Research show that 66% of American Catholics think that it is acceptable for children to be raised by gay parents. More generally, 70% think it's acceptable for gay couples to live together. Less than half believe that homosexuality should be considered a sin (44% of Catholics compared to 62% of Protestants); and the majority want the church to be more flexible to those in same-sex relationships, including the right to have a recognized marriage.
In August 2015, a poll jointly organized by the Institute for Public Religion Research and Religion News Service was released which shows that on issues such as the LGBT rights there is "a widening ideological gap between Catholic leadership and people on the bench", as well as the attitude which is more progressive among Catholics than the general US population. 60% of Catholics support allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally, compared to 55% of Americans as a whole. Most Catholics (53%) say they do not believe same-sex marriages violate their religious beliefs. 76% of Catholics also say they like laws that will protect LGBT people from discrimination (along with 70% of Americans as a whole). Finally, about 65% of Catholics oppose policies that allow business owners the right to deny services to LGBT customers by citing religious issues (compared to 57% of Americans).
Elsewhere
The 2014 poll commissioned by the Spanish-language network, Univision, more than 2,000 Catholics in 12 countries (Uganda, Spain, USA, Brazil, Argentina, France, Mexico, Italy, Colombia, Poland, Philippines and DRC) found that two thirds of respondents opposed the idea of ​​same-sex marriage, and about one-third supported. However, resistance levels vary between developing and developed economies, with 99% of respondents opposing in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo; but the majority support in Spain (63%) and the United States (54%). Moreover, in all countries the majority of those surveyed said they did not think the Catholic Church should make a marriage between two people of the same gender - although the results again range with the strongest support in Spain (43% support) to Uganda (99% against).
In January 2014, former Irish president Mary McAleese strongly criticized the Catholic Church's approach to homosexuality in a lecture to the Royal Society of Edinburgh: "I do not like my church's attitude towards gay people I do not like 'love of sinners, hate sin 'If you are the so-called sinner, who likes to call it? His comments were welcomed by the Irish Catholic Priest Association.
The Conference of the German Bishops' Conference reported in February 2014 that in Germany "the Church's statement of premarital sexual intercourse, homosexuality, in those who divorced and remarried, and on birth control... is almost never accepted, or explicitly rejected in most cases. "; and that there is a "clear trend" among Catholics to receive legal recognition of same-sex unions as "a command of justice" and they feel the Church should bless them, though most do not want gay marriages legalized. "
The YouGov poll held in Britain in 2015 found that Catholics have a more liberal attitude toward gay marriage than Protestants, though both groups are less receptive to problems than the public as a whole. 50% of Catholics support gay marriage (compared to 45% Protestant, and 66% of people in the UK as a whole).
World Values ​​ Survey
Using data from World Values ​​Surveys, Austrian political scientist Arno Tausch examined opinions about the homosexuality of respondents identified as "practicing" Roman Catholics (attending Mass at least once a week). He found that homosexuality was widely tolerated far more advanced than in developing countries, with former communist countries in Eastern Europe being in the middle position.
The majority of practicing Roman Catholics (ie, more than 50%, in decreasing order of acceptance) in Andorra, The Netherlands, Guatemala, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, USA, Australia, Singapore, Spain, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Uruguay, England, Colombia, Switzerland, Vietnam, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, South Africa, France, Chile, Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago will accept homosexual neighbors. Similarly, the majority (ie, more than 50%, in descending order) of Roman Catholic practices in the Netherlands, Andorra, Germany, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Philippines, USA, UK, Singapore, Australia, Slovakia, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Guatemala, Lebanon, Bosnia, Switzerland, Uruguay, Brazil, Malaysia, Chile, and the Dominican Republic also reject the notion that homosexuality can not be justified.
Tausch concluded that in some countries the rejection of homosexuality among Roman Catholic practitioners is weaker than the communities in which they live (Bosnia, South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia, Nigeria, Guatemala, Lebanon, Dominican Republic, Malaysia, USA, Philippines, Ghana, Romania , Rwanda, Zimbabwe, El Salvador, South Korea, and Zambia) and that the strong statistical link between the rejection of homosexuality and open and liberal societies shows that the Catholic Church should reconsider its position on this issue as it is. not in line with its adherents.
Movement
DignityUSA was founded in the United States in 1969 as the first group for gay and lesbian Catholics shortly after the Stonewall riots. This was developed from the ministry of Father Patrick Xavier Nidorf, an Augustinian priest. He believes that gay Catholics can "express our sexuality physically, in an integrated, loving, life-giving, and life-affirming way." It also seeks to "work for the development of sexual theology that leads to the reform of the doctrine and practice [of the church] on human sexuality, and for the acceptance of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenderers as full and equal members of one Christ." In 1980, the Priesthood Association of the Archdiocese of Chicago honored the Honorary Chicago branch as an organization this year. The first meeting was held in San Diego and Los Angeles, before the organization finally headquartered in Boston. It then spread to Canada. With the publication in 1987 on "The Pastoral Care of Homosexuals", instructing bishops not to provide facilities for organizations that do not uphold Catholic teaching on homosexuality, Catholic bishops in Atlanta, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Pensacola and Vancouver immediately set aside the chapter - respectable, and "within a few months, the organization was not favored in church property anywhere".
After a conference in Detroit in 1976 a group called Call to Action (CTA) was founded to advocate for changes in the Catholic Church, including church teachings on sexual issues such as homosexuality. Bishop Lincoln subsequently placed the group under the prohibition of excommunication within his diocese. Several other bishops have denounced the organization. The communications were affirmed by the Congregation for Bishops in 2006. Nevertheless, the organization continues with a wide range of activities including annual conferences and regional groups, and by 2013 they seek to expand their appeal under the slogan "Inspire Catholicism, Transform the Church".
The Rainbow Sash Movement includes two separate organizations created by and progressing by practicing LGBT Catholics who believe they should be able to receive Holy Communion. It's been most active in the United States, Britain and Australia. The Rainbow Sash itself is a strip of rainbow-colored cloth worn on the left shoulder and placed at the beginning of the Liturgy. Members rise to receive the Eucharist. If rejected, they return to the bench and remain standing, but if the Eucharist is accepted then they return to the bench and kneel in the traditional way. Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacrament Discipline, said that members of the Rainbow Sash Movement disqualified themselves from Communion by making it a contradiction to Church teaching, while Archbishop Harry Joseph Flynn, when the archdiocesan chief of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, to take Communion there to individual Catholics about the status of their grace and freedom from mortal sin, but that receiving Communion should not be used in protest. The movement in Illinois is also planned to hold a cathedral prayer for the legalization of same-sex marriage, an initiative that Bishop Paprocki of Springfield called blasphemous.
In the United Kingdom, Quest is a group for lesbian, gay, and bisexual Catholics in order to "proclaim the Gospel... in order to maintain and enhance Christian belief among homosexual men and women." It was founded and led by lay Catholics. It was, however, taken from the Catholic Directory because of the refusal to make clear its alienation from active gay sexuality.
There are other groups operating around the world. many organize prayer and retreat meetings and make common goals in their desire to defend their Catholic faith without hiding their sexuality. Some people are calling for official recognition of a permanent partnership as an effective way to curb homosexual intercourse. 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 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, "Stichting Dignity Nederland"; in Mexico, "Ottra Ovejas"; and in South Africa, "Pilgrim".
Protest
On December 10, 1989, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash the Power (ACT UP) demonstrated both inside and outside St. Anthony's Cathedral. Patrick in New York while Cardinal John O'Connor was celebrating Mass attended by Mayor Edward I. Koch in protest at Church failure to respond positively to the AIDS crisis. A group of 4,500 protesters gathered in the cathedral, and several dozen activists entered the cathedral, interrupting Mass, shouting slogans, blowing whistles, lying in the alley, and chaining themselves to the benches. A protester marred the Eucharist by breaking it and throwing it to the floor. One hundred and eleven protesters were arrested, including 43 in the church.
In Los Angeles that same year, gay activists splashed bright red paint in four churches to protest Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and condemnation condemnation of the US Bishop against condoms to fight AIDS. They also put up a Mahoney poster calling him a murderer.
During the ordination of priests in Boston in 1990, ACT UP chanted and protested outside during the service. In January 1998, 39-year-old Alfredo Ormando set himself on fire at St Peter's Square, Vatican City as a political protest against the Catholic Church's condemnation of homosexuality. He died shortly after from his injuries.
In Belgium in 2013, four topless women from FEMEN harbored archbishop Andrà © © -Joseph LÃÆ' © onard with water during a public event to protest the Church's position on homosexuality. The annual meeting of US bishops in 2000, including the Mass, was interrupted by a series of protests by gay activists from Soulforce, the Rainbow Sash, and others. The protests came at the end of the year of protests for Soulforce, some of which resulted in arrests, including 104 in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Immaculate Conception.
Official Church Defenders
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus, the Catholic fraternity organization, has also been active in political campaigns throughout the United States in the same-sex marriage field. The Order contributes over $ 14 million to help defend the legal definition of marriage as one man and one woman in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington. Darren Hurwitz (a proponent of same-sex marriage) has claimed that the Knights of Columbus has now become "one of the largest donors in the country that discriminates against gays and lesbians."
Catholic Medical Association
The North American Catholic Medical Association claims that science "fights the myth that genetically similar interests are predetermined and irreversible, and offers hope for prevention and treatment." In their official journal, a peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on bioethics, homosexuality has been defined as a variety of "same-sex attraction", "psychological and behavioral conditions that people seek for professional care," and "neurotic character syndrome," characterized by "immature personality, self-victimization, and selfishness." "MSM" (men who have sex with men) is claimed to have "high levels of substance abuse and psychological disorders, and a significant percentage... have experienced childhood sexual abuse and other adverse events".
Catholic League
The Catholic League, anti-defamation organizations and Catholic civil rights, often oppose LGBT policies and the positive portrayals of gay men and women. His president Bill Donohue has described the crisis of child sex violence as a "homosexual" issue rather than a "pedophilia" issue because most incidents involve sex between men and boys rather than women. Donohue has repeatedly opposed the entry of LGBT groups in St. Patrick's Day Marches across the United States. After the NYC St. Patrick announced in 2015 that they ended the ban and allowed gay groups to line up under their own banner for the first time, Donohue announced that the League would not line up in the parade. He also showed his conviction that the 'American Company' is marching in a gay rights movement: " It's not a secret, and they've done the same thing here.
In 2016, the Catholic League openly supports the cancellation of the gay-themed sitcom, The Real O'Neals, which is loosely based on the life of Dan Savage's columnist and deals with the reaction of Catholic conservative mothers to their sexuality.
Homosexuality and Catholic priests
Pastors of homosexual, and homosexual activity by priests, not only modern phenomena, but originated from centuries ago. The estimates presented in Donald B. Cozzens's Faces Changed Leviticus of contemporary gay priests percentage ranged from 23-58%, indicating a higher number of homosexual men (active and non-homosexual). active) in the Catholic priesthood.
The 1961 Instruction of the Sacred Congregation for Religious People in selecting men for the priesthood gave the bishop the privilege of allowing gay men, but kept them with the same purity standard as straight men. In 1997, the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacrament Discipline published further guidelines for candidates for seminaries, establishing "sufficient affective maturity and a clearly masculine sexual identity." In 2002 it was said that acknowledging gay men would be discouraged and unwise.
In November 2005, the Congregation for Catholic Education stated that "the Church, while deeply respecting the people concerned, can not admit to seminaries or to the sacred ordinances of those who practice homosexuality." In May 2008, the Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, acting on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI, confirmed that the 2005 declaration applies to all Catholic seminaries everywhere.
In October 2015, on the day before the second round of the Family Synod, a Polish senior priest working in the Vatican, Krzysztof Charamsa, publicly stated in Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he was gay and had a partner. He said that he intends to draw attention to the Church's current attitude toward the gay Catholics he describes as "retreat".
Homosexuality and episcopacy
The existence of gay bishops in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and other traditions is a matter of historical record, though never, to date, considered valid by one of the main Christian denominations. Homosexual activity is done secretly. When made public, official responses range from not acting until expelled from Holy Orders. As far back as the eleventh century, Ralph, Archbishop of Tours has placed his lover as Bishop Orlà © ans, but not Pope Urban II, or his successor Paschal II takes action to depose humanity.
Although homosexual sexual acts have been consistently condemned by the Catholic Church, a number of senior pastors have been found or suspected of having homosexual relationships including Rembert Weakland, Juan Carlos Maccarone, Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira, and Keith O'Brien.. A number of popes are reported to have been homosexual or have male sexual partners, including Pope Benedict IX, Pope Paul II, Pope Sixtus IV, Pope Leo X, Pope Julius II and Pope Julius III.
Political activity
Decriminalizing homosexuality
National level
In many countries, members of the Catholic Church have intervened at the second opportunity to support the decriminalization of homosexuality, and also to ensure it remains a criminal law violation.
In the 1960s, the Catholic Church backed Wolfenden's report to introduce the law to decriminalize homosexual acts in England and Wales. In Australia, Cardinal Cardinal Norman Thomas Gilroy supported the efforts that began in the 1970s to change the law. In the United States, the Federation of Catholic National Imams Federation expressed their opposition to "all civil laws that make consensual homosexual acts between adults and crime."
In the 1970s and 1980s in Belize, India, and Malta, local churches opposed the decriminalization of homosexual acts. In New Zealand in the 1980s, although the Church refused to give a formal response to a parliamentary inquiry on decriminalization, Cardinal Williams did not issue statements against homosexual law reform. Cardinal Oswald Gracias, a President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India and one of the eight members of the Council of Cardinals of Pope Francis, declared it wrong to make gay criminals, because the Catholic Church "teaches that homosexuals have the same dignity, every human being and condemns all forms of discrimination, unjust harassment or harassment ".
In Nigeria, a number of senior bishops (including Cardinal John Onaiyekan and Ignatius Ayau Kaigama (Archbishop Jos) support laws that make homosexual activity a crime, at least one formerly supportive bishop then goes on to state that the Catholic Church will "defend everyone with a harassed homosexual orientation, who is in prison, who is being punished. "The report shows that the influence of Pope Francis may have caused him to modify his initial rhetoric.
A few days later, an editorial on "The Southern Cross" (a newspaper run jointly by South African bishops, Botswana and Swaziland) criticized Nigeria's new laws, calling on the Catholic Church in Africa to stand with people who helpless and "alarming in progress across Africa from the cruel laws aimed at criminalizing homosexuality." It notes "a deep homophobic flavor" in Africa and says the Catholic church is too often "silent, in some cases even quietly involved" in the face of new anti-gay measures.
In Uganda, Catholic bishops (including Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga) urged Parliament to pass the anti-homosexual bill, and join other religious leaders to call on members of parliament to make progress in enacting laws that would extend criminalization of same-sex relations. In 2015, Bishop Giuseppe Franzelli of Lira diocese denied that the Catholic Church in Uganda is institutionally behind any incentives against anti-gay laws, and called for "respect and love". Instead he blames fundamentalist American Christian groups as well as "Catholic individuals, including some bishops" to encourage greater criminal sanctions. The papal Nuncio to Uganda, Archbishop Michael Blume, voiced concern and surprise at the bill.
Global level
In 2008, the Holy See, as an observer at the United Nations, opposed the proposed declaration against human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity, such as criminalization, violence and discrimination, and affirming human rights principles regardless of sexual orientation or identity gender.
Speaking on the floor of the General Assembly, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Holy See's deputy at the General Assembly of the United Nations, said: "The Holy See appreciates the efforts made [in the draft declaration] to condemn all forms of violence against homosexuals as also urges States to take the necessary steps to end all criminal penalties against them ", but added that his failure to define the terms" sexual orientation "and" gender identity "would result in" serious uncertainty "and" undermine the State's ability to enter into and uphold new and existing human rights conventions and standards ". He added in an interview that the proposed declaration would put pressure on countries to impose gay marriages and allow gay couples to adopt children.
During a discussion at the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council in 2011 on the Joint Statement on Termination of Violence and Related Human Rights Violations Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, the representative of the Holy See, Archbishop Silvano Maria Tomasi, stated: "A country must never punish a person, or deprive a person of the enjoyment of human rights, based only on one's feelings and thoughts, including sexual thoughts and feelings, but the state can, and should, regulate behavior, including various sexual behaviors. "There is a consensus among the people that some types of sexual behavior should be prohibited by law. Pedophilia and incest are two examples. "He went on to say that a resolution recognizing gay rights would lead to discrimination against religious leaders and that there is concern that consistent laws will lead to" socially inherited "natural and family marriages.
On 28 January 2012, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gave a speech calling on African countries to repeal laws that place sanctions on homosexual behavior. Speaking to a journalist, African Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council, Cor Unum, called the speech stupid. He added: "Poor countries like Africa just accept it because it is levied on them through money, because it is tied with aid." He said that African bishops should react to this step against African culture. Meanwhile, Cardinal Peter Turkson, while admitting that some of the sanctions imposed on homosexuals in Africa is "exaggerating," stating that "the intensity of the reaction may be commensurate with tradition". "Just as there is a sense of calling for rights, there is also a call to respect the culture, of all kinds of people", he said. "So, if it is stigmatized, in fairness, it may be true to know why it is being stigmatized." He also called for a distinction between human rights and moral issues.
Discrimination against gay men and women
The Catholic Church has been described as sending "mixed signals" of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He argues that because of "moral concern", sexual orientation differs from qualities such as race, ethnicity, gender or age, and therefore actively opposes the extension of at least some aspects of civil rights legislation, such as non-discrimination in housing general, educational, athletic, adoption, or military recruitment work, to gay and lesbian men. It is said that such restriction of rights is permissible, and sometimes even obligatory, to "protect the common good", and is not an unjust discrimination.
In 2014 the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern in the report of the Holy See's last statement and statement on homosexuality which he said "contributed to social stigmatization and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered teenagers and children raised by same-sex couples ". The Committee urges the Holy See to "make full use of its moral authority to condemn all forms of abuse, discrimination or violence against children on the basis of their sexual orientation or their parents' sexual orientation and to support efforts at the international level for the decriminalization of homosexuality."
Europe and Australia
In 1995, Catholic bishops in Poland successfully rejected the introduction of provisions into the state constitution which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In 2010, the EU rebuked schools and colleges owned by the Catholic Church for refusing to hire openly gay staff.
In February 2018, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Australia openly intervened to call for religious freedom acts which it refused to protect the protection of religious exclusion from discrimination laws in a submission to the review of Ruddock's religious freedom. It argues that the right not to employ LGB staff or teachers if it would undermine the teaching of the Church and take the risk of their contributions as role models for students.
Africa
In May 2014, Lewis Zeigler, Archbishop of Monrovia, Liberia, reportedly opposed the Ebola plague's background that "one of the major offenses against God that might punish Liberia is the act of homosexuality".
In 2015, at the Family Synod in Rome Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea compares the promotion of equal rights to gay people as similar to support for totalitarian regimes such as Nazism: "We must be inclusive and friendly to all humanity, but what comes from the Enemy can not and can not be assimilated.You can not join Christ and Belial What is Nazi-Fascism and Communism in the 20th century, the Ideology of Homosexuality and Western Abortion and Islamic Fanaticism today. "
South America
In 2011, a Catholic bishop in Peru, Luis BambarÃÆ' nà © n, was forced to apologize for using the degrading "maricon" in comments, while answering reporters' questions about plans to legalize same-sex marriage, on use in Spanish from English "gay": "I do not know why we're talking about Gay Let's talk in Creole or Castilian: It's a phaggot, that's how you say it, right?" He then apologized, saying: "This is an offensive word, and [homosexual] is worthy of respect."
United States
In 1999, the trustees of the University of Notre Dame, a Catholic university, rejected a proposal to change their anti-discrimination clause to include sexual orientation along with characteristics such as race, color, and gender. Faculty and students did not approve of the decision, and the students reacted with hunger strikes and demonstrations.
In 2013, the United States Bishops Conference opposes a bill that would prohibit discrimination in recruitment and employment based on sexual orientation or gender identity by civilian, non-religious employers with at least 15 employees. While they expressed their belief that "nothing should be the object of scorn, hatred, or violence for any reason, including sexual inclinations," the bishops said: "We have a moral duty to defy any law that will greatly contribute to the effort law to redefine marriage ".
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops intervenes in 2017 in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission being considered by the US Supreme Court. It's a brief friend-of-the-court brief to support bakers who have refused to make wedding cakes for gay couples. The organization joins other Catholic organizations including the Colorado Catholic Conference, the Catholic Bar Association, the Catholic Medical Association, the National Association of Catholic-American Nations and the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
The court has upheld the dismissal of church employees for entering same-sex marriage. DignityUSA reports that more than 100 employees of Catholic institutions across the United States have lost their posts from 2014-17 for being gay or marrying same-sex couples.
In 2016, Fabian Bruskewitz argued that acceptance of homosexuality in the US has "destroyed" society, and when the bishop threatens an automatic excommunication of Catholics who are members of Call to Action.
Campaign against same-sex marriage and civil union
The Catholic Church has intervened in national political discourses to pass legislative and constitutional provisions that uphold marriage as a union of men and women, in line with Church teachings on marriage - rejecting secular government efforts to grant equal rights to men and gay women. through the formation of civil unions or same-sex marriages.
On June 3, 2003, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published "Proposals Concerning Providing Law Recognition to Unity between Homosexuals" against the same-sex marriage. This document makes it clear that "legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them at the same level as marriage does not only mean the consent of deviant behavior... but it will also obscure the basic values ​​that belong to the common heritage of mankind." Catholic legislators are commanded to support such a claim to be "extremely immoral," and that they must do all they can actively do against it, bearing in mind that "the consent or legalization of evil is something far different from tolerating crime."
In the United States, the leadership of the Catholic Church has taken an active and financial role in political campaigns in all states of same-sex marriage. In July 2003, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Canada, the country's plurality of religions, protested against the government's ChrÃÆ'Â © tien plan to include same-sex couples in civil marriages.
In Spain and Portugal, Catholic leaders led opposition to same-sex marriage, urging their followers to vote against it. In April 2013, when the legalization of same-sex marriages was being discussed, the Irish Bishops Conference stated that they are subject to the constitutional convention that, if the civil definition of marriage is changed to incorporate same-sex marriage, so that it is different from the definition of the church itself, they can no longer performing civil functions at weddings. In predominantly Catholic countries in Italy and Croatia, the Catholic Church has become a major opponent for the introduction of civil unions or marriages to same-sex couples.
Church leaders also oppose the introduction of gay marriage in Australia, Uruguay, Cameroon and Nigeria. In the Philippines, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines has been increasingly vocal in its opposition to legal recognition of same-sex relationships. In Hong Kong, Cardinal John Tong Hon, has used pastoral letters on two occasions to criticize proposals for making laws for same-sex marriage.
Civil union acceptance
There are several disagreements expressed in recent years by senior and prominent figures in the Catholic Church about whether support should be given to civil unions homosexuals.
Bishop Jacques Gaillot's insistence on preaching a message about homosexuality contrary to official church teachings was largely regarded as one of the factors that led him to be excluded from See of Evraux, France, in 1995. When bishop, blessing homosexual unity in "welcome ministry" , after the couple asked him to remember their close death from AIDS.
In his book Credere e conoscere, published shortly before his death, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the former archbishop of Milan, supported the civil union, although he stated that they can not be regarded as equations of heterosexual marriage. He also said he understood the need for gay self affirmation. Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez of Bogota and Archbishop Piero Marini have both expressed support for civil unions, while Godfried Danneels, Archbishop Emeritus of Brussels, has called for the legalization of same-sex civil marriages.
The bishop of Antwerp, Johan Bonny, asked in 2016 for the Church to plan a blessing for homosexual couples who will recognize the "exclusiveness and stability" of such unions. German Cardinal Reinhard Marx and Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, both argue that the blessing of same-sex unions will be possible in Catholic churches in Germany. In Austria, same-sex trade unions are permitted in at least two churches, both located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Linz.
In the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aachen in Germany, five same-sex trade unions receive the blessing of local imams in the German city of MÃÆ'¶nchengladbach. In addition, in 2007, a same-sex trade union received blessings in the city of Wetzlar, Germany, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limburg. A blessing of a same-sex union, equivalent to a marriage except a name, was made by a Dominican Catholic priest in Malta in 2015. He was not publicly criticized by the local bishop.
Cardinal Rainer Woelki, Archbishop of Berlin, and Hamburg's Archbishop Stefan HeÃÆ'Ÿe have noted the value of loyalty and reliability found in gay relationships. At the Synod of Bishops 2015 in Rome, Cardinal Reinhard Marx urged his bishops that "We must explain that we are not just judging people according to their sexual orientation... If same-sex couples are loyal, caring for one another and intending to stay together for the life of God will not said 'All that does not interest me, I'm only interested in your sexual orientation. ' "
More than 260 Catholic theologians, mainly from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, signed in January and February 2011 a memorandum, called Church Church 2011, which says that Church prices for marriage and celibacy "require no exclusion from people responsible for love, loyalty and mutual care in same-sex partnerships or in remarriage after divorce ".
Diplomatic differences of opinion
In January 2015, the French government announced that they proposed Laurent Stefanini as his ambassador to the Holy See. Stefanini was the head of the protocol for President FranÃÆ'§ois Hollande and was the French Chief of Mission for the Vatican from 2001 to 2005. Cardinal Andrà © à © Vingt-Trois, the Archbishop of Paris, sent a letter to Pope Francis to support Stefanini, a Roman Catholic reportedly gay, but have not spoken publicly about their sexuality, or entering into valid legal relationships. He openly supported the legalization of same-sex marriage in France in 2013. The Pope met with Stefanini for forty minutes on April 17. In October the Vatican did not accept or reject the appointment, and press speculation blamed Stefanini's sexual orientation, legalization of a new French-type marriage, or the Vatican's displeasure with the fact that the nomination leaked for political reasons. France named Stefanini as ambassador to UNESCO in April 2016.
Prominent lesbian, gay, and bisexual Catholics
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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