QUOTE]What does it mean to have “deep-seated homosexual tendencies?” The recent instruction from the Congregation for Catholic Education defines this condition as distinct from both the practice of the act and from a condition referred to as “transitory homosexuality.” This implies that the instruction is triggered for one who experiences persistent same-sex desire entirely apart from how the individual handles it. Behavior, it seems in this context, is irrelevant.
This instruction is based, not upon prejudice, but on the observed characteristics of those who experience same-sex attraction. They are gravely hindered from proper relations with members of either gender. Examples are plentiful, a few of which include the pederasty scandal, the rampant disease within the effected demographic and an omnipresent desire to upend age-old social conventions to accommodate their own perversions. Their condition indeed constitutes “a destabilizing reality for people and for society” as reported yesterday. The Church therefore makes a prudential judgment about admitting such persons to Holy Orders.
The intense interest generated by this order cannot have escaped the notice of the Holy See and it would be a strange instruction if it made a prudential judgment that the lay community itself was to be restricted from making. It would be a grave omission for a Christian not to take the Church’s judgment on homosexuality into consideration when dealing with people who experience this condition. In the past, the Church rightly taught that access even to employment, food, shelter and education could be justly restricted based upon conduct. This instruction, again based upon sound observation, widens the scope of conditions under which that same judgment can be made based upon the potential for immoral conduct. This condition, destructive as it is to the welfare of society, seems to constrain the individual’s right to invoke social justice. Obviously one cannot claim the protection of society if one works towards its destruction.
It is hard for me not to see this as a ringing endorsement of all that I have said upon this issue.
I have read some of your others posts on the topic of homosexuality and I have to say that I have never been more offended in my life. To suggest somehow that I chose to have same sex attractions makes me want to throw up, it is an increadably painful thing to go through; you couldn’t even begin to imagine. On top of that, you actually said that people with same sex attractions are damned.
There is no salvation for one who faces this temptation.
Well, that isn’t what the Church teaches…
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.
Although I don’t believe I was born a homosexual, I definitely didn’t choose it.
I assure you that when I die and stand before the throne of God I will not be empty handed, as you have suggested of people with same sex attractions who remain chaste. I have completely denied myself in order to follow God’s plan. I admit that I do not know you, so I am trying to be a charitable as possible, but the record needs to be set straight for anyone who thinks the way you do.
I will pray for you.
. I think that this is the reason a lot of homosexual men join the priesthood, because after their whole world caves in on them, they want to run and hide. Questions like, “what am I going to do with the rest of my life?” are constantly nagging at your head. But, accepting crosses, while not always easy to do, brings with it a great deal of peace. I have never felt so peaceful in my life than I do right now. I have always wanted to do missionary work, maybe someday, God willing, I will be able to tell people who have never heard about Christ the Good News as a lay missionary.
