Can the Church declare sinful actions as morally licit?

[Belfarmer]

In a discussion with a Catholic friend, he claimed that in Matthew 16:19 where Jesus gives Peter and the Church the Power of the Keys, the Church is given the ability to declare anything sinful or not. Thus, if the Church wishes, so-called gay marriage, sexual promiscuity gay and strait, communion for the divorced and remarried, and other issues could be declared licit based on The Power of the Keys. The Church may not have made such a declaration yet but could in the future.

I suspect strongly that this misstates the meaning of the verse but would appreciate some help in responding to this claim.

 

[Karlo_Broussard]

If by “declare anything sinful or not” your friend means the Church can determine what is good and bad, such that it could declare sinful actions as good, then your friend is mistaken.

Perhaps what he was trying to say is that the Church has the authority to infallibly identify what is sin and what is not a sin. There is a difference.

The Church cannot make up its own morality. The Church is merely the guardian of the truth concerning the dignity of the human person. It has the promise of Christ to infallibly identify those things that are morally harmful to the human person and those things that are morally good for the human person.

So, when the Church denounces a certain action as intrinsically evil, we can know with certainty that such a declaration is true and the specific action denounced is wrong.

Furthermore, because of the gift of infallibility and indefectibility, the church can never declare something sinful as good nor can it change a moral doctrine later on down the road.

Rest assure, the Church cannot declare licit the human behaviors you mentioned in the question.