Catholic Beliefs on Homosexuality

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If homosexuality is a genetic disorder, then it most certainly is the result of original sin. That being the case, I believe grace would be sufficient to overcome the temptations. Nobody has to act on temptations to sin. And I also think Christ can redeem or heal sexual wounds.
 
Absolutely Christ can heal, and Christ provides a way for all of us to escape temptation.

The Catechism again:

[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.
 
TheLittleLady said:
Absolutely Christ can heal,
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In my opinion, this is the most important Catholic belief about homosexuality. Many people who experience same-sex attraction want to be free of their inclination because the behaviour isn’t compatible with their values. These individuals should derive hope from the fact that Jesus can liberate them from same-sex attraction. Nobody is enslaved to an inclination. Any desire, including sexual desire, can be weakened and then defeated by the grace of God.
 
Saxum said:
These individuals should derive hope from the fact that Jesus can liberate them from same-sex attraction. Nobody is enslaved to an inclination.
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Jesus can help us not give in to sinful sexual acts, we are tempted, every human is tempted and we much learn to master our urges.

Being same sex attracted is not a sin. Acting on it is where sin happens.
 
The “sin of Sodom” has been understood to mean homosexual intercourse throughout the history of Catholic Church teaching. Nuff said.
 
GrowingInTheFaith said:
Obviously, interpretation of the Bible is down to the individual
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NOOOOOOOO. Interpreting the Bible isn’t down to the individual. If more than one truth can be legitimately derived from the Bible, then the Bible isn’t legit. The truth is, the Catholic Church wrote and assembled the Bible. The Holy Spirit entrusted it to the Catholic Church. It is the role of the church to interpret the Bible.

Otherwise we just have a book that nobody can interpret and we’re back where we started.

This is the single biggest stumbling block that non Catholics have.
GrowingInTheFaith said:
but I find it impossible to believe that the God who gave his own self to redeem mankind would condemn a part of it, outright, because they loved people with the same number of X-chromosomes as themselves
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These statements wind me up. It’s possible to do that with just about any sin. “You’re telling me an infinite God is going to send me to hell forever for touching just one child?” See how silly that sounds? Same here.

(Note I’m not comparing pedophilia to homosexuality I’m say the arguement is bad.)

Edit: I should also mention that Catholics do not believe, as that quote suggests, that all gay people go to hell. God gives all men sufficient grave to reach heaven. What happens next is up to them.
 
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Homosexuality as an identity is a rather recent invention. Previously, homosexual acts were recognized, but not homosexual persons.
 
Saxum said:
The orientation is a psychological disorder caused by traumatic childhood experiences. It’s a response to a distant father. It’s a form of gender identity disorder in which the sufferer feels like an inferior man. The sexual desire is basically erotic envy.
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No it isn’t. That’s what Freud thought and Freud ended getting quite a lot of things wrong as far as his hypotheses are concerned. I didn’t have a distant father and i grew up in a stable loving home with 2 parents. And I got a good public school education. And I wasn’t abused. And yet here I am as an adult that happens to be gay.

The orientation isn’t a psychological disorder. I do not have a psychological disorder and I would greatly appreciate it if you didn’t promote widely discredited claims on homosexuality.
 
GrowingInTheFaith said:
The word in question is Arsenokoiti / ἀρσενοκοῖται. It’s a word that isn’t used elsewhere in the Bible, except in Timothy (which says it’s a sin, but doesn’t otherwise define it) It’s also a word whose use completely died out, so any modern meaning is a guess. However, in other texts contemporary with the Bible, the word’s meaning is ‘person who obtains sex through abuse of power.’
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I can speak to this with some expertise. It is simply false that “any modern meaning is a guess”. “Arsen” means “male”, in Greek. And “koitai” means “lying down”. The obvious meaning is “men who lie down [together]” or “men who lie down with men”.

Can you tell me what those contemporary passages using the word are, so that I can look them up in Greek?
 
Saxum said:
These individuals should derive hope from the fact that Jesus can liberate them from same-sex attraction.
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You cannot be liberated from SSA. One, SSA in itself isn’t a sin. The act is what is sinful. Two, the Church doesn’t endorse ex gay therapies for a number of reasons. The biggest reason being that it’s been found to cause way more harm for people with SSA.
 
Saxum said:
In my opinion, this is the most important Catholic belief about homosexuality. Many people who experience same-sex attraction want to be free of their inclination because the behaviour isn’t compatible with their values. These individuals should derive hope from the fact that Jesus can liberate them from same-sex attraction. Nobody is enslaved to an inclination.
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To be clear, being enslaved to an inclination means acting on it, not experiencing it. Jesus was not enslaved to the temptation to turn stones into bread, though he certainly did experience it.
 
Yes, I did. The name of the thread was entered and I only saw a few threads pop up and none of them seemed to come from someone personally dealing with it.
 
I just wanted to add that these are another person’s views, not mine. I just wanted to see the Catholic viewpoint to this person’s answer on Quora.
 
I know that 🙂 I still think my point is VERY important if you want to understand how Catholics think. For a devout Catholic “the church has always taught that” is a good enough answer.

It’s always good to ask why the church teaches as she does. But if she’s taught something everywhere at all times, it’s known to be true.
 
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