Hired to photograph a lesbian wedding

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GerardAubyn

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I am a wedding photographer but also a practicing Catholic. I have two daughters aged 7 and 8 that bear witness to my faith, and I also teach them in the ways of our Lord. I’m a Cooperator of Opus Dei, I make a morning offering and examine my conscience every night. I say all this to illustrate that I take my faith very seriously.

Yesterday I received a phone call to photograph a wedding. She asked me if July 14th was still open, and I said yes. Long story short, I agreed to photograph her wedding and she casually said that it is a lesbian wedding. She sent me a retainer fee and she is now considered booked.

I don’t see one’s sexual orientation as their identity. I see her as a woman who feels same sex attraction. She is to be treated with dignity and respect. But, I believe that there is no such thing as a gay marriage, since this goes against the definition of marriage.

I plan to go to confession on Saturday before I attend mass in order to be in a State of grace. I will confess that I agreed to photograph a gay wedding, but that I will be more vigilant going forward. I plan to prevent this from happening again.

I also plan to go to confession after photographing the wedding.

Here’s something else: I will not be posting these images on my website, and I don’t plan to open endorse or applaud during their ceremony. I like to think that I am just a guy documenting something so I can earn a living.

What are your thoughts? Is my doing this a mortal sin? A venial sin?
 
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Do you Opus Dei folks discuss stuff like this with each other? I thought people who joined that had some sort of a spiritual director that they report to?
 
I don’t think it’s sinful at all.

You are just doing your job, you can do it in a disinterested and objective way without “supporting” them.

If it wasn’t you it would just be someone else.

I don’t understand the issue with cakes and pictures.

It’s not sinful so long as you don’t encourage it.

Would you think it was sinful to go film a documentary on terrorists in Afghanistan and be attached to an ISIS unit to do it?

Would it be sinful to photograph the wedding of atheists?
 
jktobin said:
I am a wedding photographer but also a practicing Catholic. I have two daughters aged 7 and 8 that bear witness to my faith, and I also teach them in the ways of our Lord. I’m a Cooperator of Opus Dei, I make a morning offering and examine my conscience every night. I say all this to illustrate that I take my faith very seriously.

Yesterday I received a phone call to photograph a wedding. She asked me if July 14th was still open, and I said yes. Long story short, I agreed to photograph her wedding and she casually said that it is a lesbian wedding. She sent me a retainer fee and she is now considered booked.

I don’t see one’s sexual orientation as their identity. I see her as a woman who feels same sex attraction. She is to be treated with dignity and respect. But, I believe that there is no such thing as a gay marriage, since this goes against the definition of marriage.

I plan to go to confession on Saturday before I attend mass in order to be in a State of grace. I will confess that I agreed to photograph a gay wedding, but that I will be more vigilant going forward. I plan to prevent this from happening again.

I also plan to go to confession after photographing the wedding.

Here’s something else: I will not be posting these images on my website, and I don’t plan to open endorse or applaud during their ceremony. I like to think that I am just a guy documenting something so I can earn a living.

What are your thoughts? Is my doing this a mortal sin? A venial sin?
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I tend to be more understanding of bakers, photographers, etc. who are paid only to bake cakes and take pictures. They receive money to perform these tasks and their mere duties for which they were compensated need not be taken as approval of the event they are serving. These services are not essential to the event. I would have a harder time working as a, say, minister, whose role IS essential.

Volunteering their services, however, say, for friends, carries for me a more serious issue.

I’d probably think that if I were Pope (you all thank God, I am not!), I would issue an infallible decree in this matter for the sake of Catholic consciences in matters like these. But then, I could be dead wrong, and if I were Pope, the keyword could easily be “dead.”

That said, I am neither Pope, nor a moral authority on this matter; this is just my opinion on which I am willing to be corrected by magisterial authority. Consult with your pastor, spiritual director, or some other trusted authority, and follow his direction.
 
No, it’s not a sin necessarily but if I were you I’d do exactly what you’ve decided to do. I wouldn’t applaud either, nor would I promote it. You made an agreement which you are now bound to and if you don’t wish to do it again then I’d suggest you learn from the recent victory of the baker who was targeted into making a cake for a gay wedding.
 
Filming ISIS would be a documentary the world could learn from so this is a moot point.

Are the atheist couple a man and a woman? If so, his conscience need not be violated. Though I do see your point.
 
i agree

take the pictures and don’t make worry too much about it…

i’d also help myself liberally at the cocktail hour…
 
Although if his conscience was very troubled and he didn’t want to do it, I think it also would be wrong to sue him or threaten or try to force him to do it.

This is a molehole issue that both our litigious society and overzealous media have made a mountain out of…
 
Spyridon said:
Although if his conscience was very troubled and he didn’t want to do it, I think it also would be wrong to sue him or threaten or try to force him to do it.

This is a molehole issue that both our litigious society and overzealous media have made a mountain out of…
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I agree completely.
 
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Even if it is sinful, your culpability would be severely diminished by the parade of court cases by ‘discriminated-against’ LGBTQAAIP persons against conservative / Christian buisnesses
 
They are going to have this ceremony whether you photograph the event or not. If it’s not you, it will be another photographer. You need to make a living, and I know how cut throat that business is…my wife is a photographer as well.
 
Why don’t you ask your priest before you go to confession…he should be able to give you good Catholic advice either way
 
When you photograph a wedding, you’re not simply making a record of a neutral event, you’re being hired to record the event as an object of celebration. I can’t see any way that this doesn’t give the appearance of condoning the event. You should just call and say you have to cancel, you don’t have to explain why.

As for your intentions regarding confession, this is sacrilegious. When you go to confession you must actually be sorry for your sins and not intend to continue in them.
 
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