But isn’t homosexuality sinful?
Despite assertions by most fundamentalist Christians and many charismatic groups, homosexuality, like heterosexuality, is not sinful. The U.S. bishops, in their 1976 pastoral letter To Live in Christ Jesus, clearly distinguished homosexual orientation from same-sex behavior. Pope John Paul II, in Chicago in 1979, quoted the bishops’ all-important distinction and praised their refusal to “betray those people who, because of homosexuality, are confronted with difficult moral problems… Rather, by your witness to the truth of humanity in God’s plan, you effectively manifested fraternal love upholding the true dignity, the true human dignity, of those who look to Christ’s Church for the guidance which comes from the light of God’s word” (Origins, v.9, n.18, p290).