If two gay people live together chastely

[Arbovirus]

No not even couples. Just friends who happen to both be of homosexual inclination with mutual attraction but both committed to celibacy. No outward appearance of being “couples”, not even the scandal of holding hands in public, etc.

 

[Arbovirus]

This is just my conjecture as I’ve never lived in this arrangement, but I can’t see how it’s more difficult than resisting the temptation of pornography.

With a few clicks of a button, I can choose to view “those” things, but I can choose not to. The occasion is RIGHT there.

As long as physical boundaries are set, it doesn’t seem to be any more difficult than resisting the usual temptations of the flesh…

 

[robertmidwest]

mutual attraction

To each other?

 

[Joe_73]

While they aren’t both gay, here is such a situation where a guy lives in the same house of another guy, who he initially found attractive:

They have some interesting things to say.

 

[QwertyGirl]

If they are chaste, then it isn’t sinful at all. Is it smart? I believe it would depend on if either of them has an attraction to the other. For example, in College I had a male room mate and it was completely fine because neither of us had the slightest attraction to the other. Great friends, but no sexual attraction.

If there is attraction, and they want to live chastely, then it is a bad idea.

I don’t really believe in the concept of scandal, so I won’t remark on that (I am agnostic).

 

[BlackFriar]

This is just my conjecture as I’ve never lived in this arrangement, but I can’t see how it’s more difficult than resisting the temptation of pornography.

My life experience leads me to disagree. Though as a younger single man I would once have agreed.
One does not have a personal relationship with 2D images. But when one lives with a 3D flesh and blood person and forms an affine relationship (as opposed to making a sexual object out of them) then one’s psychosexual consciousness always changes. What once seemed a compulsion or a base uncontrollable need becomes more integrated, controllable and a much smaller part of life.

Sexual issues and temptations are often the result of isolation from the human community and once we feel reintegrated they become much more manageable for most people.

Supportive cohabitation with a Catholic desire to abstain in the case of SS relationships is a beautiful thing so far as I am concerned. Women save many out of control hetero men from promiscuity and dissolute lives as well.

We live army field hospital conditions these days not in a quiet 1950’s Beverly Hills Hospital as Pope Francis wisely observes.

 

[runningdude]

I need to post a sticky somewhere! “Cohabitation” means living as though a couple were married (especially having sex); absent a sexual or romantic relationship, there are no moral prohibitions against mere roommate arrangements.

 

[Paul71]

Is that considered sinful? No “marriage” or civil union. Just living as roommates in separate rooms. Is that considered cohabitation?

Assuming that they are living together as friends or roommates, with no hanky-panky going on, then I don’t see any reason why this situation would be sinful. However, there are at least two things that could be problematic:

• If people know of their inclinations, and people assume that they are living together in a “gay” relationship, then their living arrangement could be a cause of scandal. (I am using the Catholic definition of the word “scandal.” You can look up “scandal” in the Catechism of the Catholic Church for more information.)
• This situation could be a “near occasion of sin” (in other words a temptation) for these two men or two women. If the living arrangement is a source of temptation for them, then they probably should find a different living arrangement.