Posted on 03/16/2005 6:19:36 PM PST by DBeers
A "No" to Homophobia, and Homosexual Acts
Church Is Against Discrimination, Says a Mexican Panel
MEXICO CITY, MARCH 9, 2005 (Zenit.org).- It is one thing not to discriminate against homosexuals -- but quite another to promote same-sex relations.
So says a document published by a commission of the Mexican bishops' conference when analyzing a governmental campaign against homophobia.
"The term 'homophobia' is relatively new and it is used to signify an 'obsessive aversion toward homosexual persons,'" explained the note published by the Family Pastoral Care Commission, signed by its president, Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar Martínez of Matehuala.
"A campaign that promotes that a homosexual person should not be rejected, is something worthy of recognition," it said.
"A homosexual person has all the dignity that corresponds to him/her as the human person that he/she is," the note states. "The Catholic Church does not insult, attack or incite the discrimination of any person; on the contrary, it defends, respects and promotes the dignity of each and all, also homosexuals."
The bishop clarified that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. However, a distinction must be made between the homosexual inclination and homosexual acts. The inclination is disordered in itself, but it does not, on its own, constitute a fault if there is no intention to fuel that inclination through homosexual acts."
The Church "has always stated that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered," Bishop Aguilar observed. "They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not stem from a true emotional and sexual complementarity. They cannot be approved in any case."
The episcopal note was in response to an advertising campaign launched by the Health Secretariat, a ministry of the Mexican government, and the National Center for the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS.
Bishop Aguilar's note stated: "If the campaign against homophobia pretends to present to society a homosexual person as a legitimate personal option, with the 'right to be different,' it assumes a position of apparent humanity and respect for the person by attempting to base itself on the criteria of pluralism, tolerance and nondiscrimination.
"However, it is basing itself on false and deceitful anthropological bases, distorting the concepts and language."
The prelate added: "It cannot be upheld that just as some have the inclination to a heterosexual relationship and love, others have the right to a homosexual relationship and love, in a way similar to the acceptance and respect owed to a person regardless of whether he/she is right- or left-handed, or has a different color of skin."
104. A particular problem that can appear during the process of sexual maturation is homosexuality, which is also spreading more and more in urbanized societies. This phenomenon must be presented with balanced judgement, in the light of the documents of the Church. Young people need to be helped to distinguish between the concepts of what is normal and abnormal, between subjective guilt and objective disorder, avoiding what would arouse hostility. On the other hand, the structural and complementary orientation of sexuality must be well clarified in relation to marriage, procreation and Christian chastity. "Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained". A distinction must be made between a tendency that can be innate and acts of homosexuality that "are intrinsically disordered" and contrary to Natural Law.Especially when the practice of homosexual acts has not become a habit, many cases can benefit from appropriate therapy. In any case, persons in this situation must be accepted with respect, dignity and delicacy, and all forms of unjust discrimination must be avoided. If parents notice the appearance of this tendency or of related behaviour in their children, during childhood or adolescence, they should seek help from expert qualified persons in order to obtain all possible assistance.
For most homosexual persons, this condition constitutes a trial. "They must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfil God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition". "Homosexual persons are called to chastity".
VIII At the present time there are those who, basing themselves on observations in the psychological order, have begun to judge indulgently, and even to excuse completely, homosexual relations between certain people. This they do in opposition to the constant teaching of the Magisterium and to the moral sense of the Christian people.A distinction is drawn, and it seems with some reason, between homosexuals whose tendency comes from a false education, from a lack of normal sexual development, from habit, from bad example, or from other similar causes, and is transitory or at least not incurable; and homosexuals who are definitively such because of some kind of innate instinct or a pathological constitution judged to be incurable.
In regard to this second category of subjects, some people conclude that their tendency is so natural that it justifies in their case homosexual relations within a sincere communion of life and love analogous to marriage, in so far as such homosexuals feel incapable of enduring a solitary life.
In the pastoral field, these homosexuals must certainly be treated with understanding and sustained in the hope of overcoming their personal difficulties and their inability to fit into society. Their culpability will be judged with prudence. But no pastoral method can be employed which would give moral justification to these acts on the grounds that they would be consonant with the condition of such people. For according to the objective moral order, homosexual relations are acts which lack an essential and indispensable finality. In Sacred Scripture they are condemned as a serious depravity and even presented as the sad consequence of rejecting God. This judgment of Scripture does not of course permit us to conclude that all those who suffer from this anomaly are personally responsible for it, but it does attest to the fact that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and can in no case be approved of.
10. It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action and in law.But the proper reaction to crimes committed against homosexual persons should not be to claim that the homosexual condition is not disordered. When such a claim is made and when homosexual activity is consequently condoned, or when civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase.
11. It has been argued that the homosexual orientation in certain cases is not the result of deliberate choice; and so the homosexual person would then have no choice but to behave in a homosexual fashion. Lacking freedom, such a person, even if engaged in homosexual activity, would not be culpable.
Here, the Church's wise moral tradition is necessary since it warns against generalizations in judging individual cases. In fact, circumstances may exist, or may have existed in the past, which would reduce or remove the culpability of the individual in a given instance; or other circumstances may increase it. What is at all costs to be avoided is the unfounded and demeaning assumption that the sexual behaviour of homosexual persons is always and totally compulsive and therefore inculpable. What is essential is that the fundamental liberty which characterizes the human person and gives him his dignity be recognized as belonging to the homosexual person as well. As in every conversion from evil, the abandonment of homosexual activity will require a profound collaboration of the individual with God's liberating grace.
II. Applications10. "Sexual orientation" does not constitute a quality comparable to race, ethnic background, etc. in respect to non-discrimination. Unlike these, homosexual orientation is an objective disorder (cf. "Letter," No. 3) and evokes moral concern.
11. There are areas in which it is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account, for example, in the placement of children for adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or athletic coaches, and in military recruitment.
13. Including "homosexual orientation" among the considerations on the basis of which it is illegal to discriminate can easily lead to regarding homosexuality as a positive source of human rights, for example, in respect to so-called affirmative action or preferential treatment in hiring practices. This is all the more deleterious since there is no right to homosexuality (cf. No. 10) which therefore should not form the basis for judicial claims. The passage from the recognition of homosexuality as a factor on which basis it is illegal to discriminate can easily lead, if not automatically, to the legislative protection and promotion of homosexuality. A person's homosexuality would be invoked in opposition to alleged discrimination, and thus the exercise of rights would be defended precisely via the affirmation of the homosexual condition instead of in terms of a violation of basic human rights.
4. There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law. Homosexual acts “close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved”.7. Homosexual unions are totally lacking in the biological and anthropological elements of marriage and family which would be the basis, on the level of reason, for granting them legal recognition. Such unions are not able to contribute in a proper way to the procreation and survival of the human race. The possibility of using recently discovered methods of artificial reproduction, beyond involv- ing a grave lack of respect for human dignity, does nothing to alter this inadequacy.
Homosexual unions are also totally lacking in the conjugal dimension, which represents the human and ordered form of sexuality. Sexual relations are human when and insofar as they express and promote the mutual assistance of the sexes in marriage and are open to the transmission of new life.
As experience has shown, the absence of sexual complementarity in these unions creates obstacles in the normal development of children who would be placed in the care of such persons. They would be deprived of the experience of either fatherhood or motherhood. Allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development. This is gravely immoral and in open contradiction to the principle, recognized also in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, that the best interests of the child, as the weaker and more vulnerable party, are to be the paramount consideration in every case.
ping.
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
Good info on the Catholic Church's position on homosexuality; including respecting PEOPLE without having to approve of their actions. Makes it clear that a person may suffer from Same Sex Attraction Disorder without succumbing to temptation. Sexual desires (and other kinds as well) can be fought, and indeed, overcome. That's the difference between being an animal and a human.
Being human means living up to our highest potential - the highest being re-united with God in loving service (like my favorite story, the Prodigal Son); rather than sinking to the lowest level of indulging in vicious sexual implulses.
Let me and DirtyHarryY2K know if you want on/off this pinglist.
The term is neither new nor is it used as is claimed above. Homosexuals and their defenders use the word "homophobe" and its derivatives as a means to denigrate those who believe homosexuality is a deviance and is morally wrong. In this sense the word "homophobe" and its derivatives are nothing more than liberal hate speech.
| Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Version 1.1) |
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| What We Can Do To Help Defeat the "Gay" Agenda |
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| Myth and Reality about Homosexuality--Sexual Orientation Section, Guide to Family Issues" |
Done.
Just saw it -- perfect!
True, homophobe has been used for several years now as a derisive term for anyone who does not buy in to the homosexual normal acceptancy agenda. In particular it applies to high school students who refuse to wear the Gay Straight Alliance ribbon.
Well, for me the term is relatively new. I agree that the term is used for the most part to advance the homosexual agenda by attempting to demonize those who justly oppose the homosexualization of society. This Bishop is doing his best to teach the complete truth objectively without invoking motive.
The term itself is ridiculous...
Greek derivative:
Homo - Same
Phobio - Fear
So, a homophobe is someone who is afraid of sameness. Or perhaps, if we translate "homo" from Latin meaning "man", we get someone who is afraid of men.
In any case, the term is ludicrous. Guess that comes with perverting the once happy word "gay" to mean something else.
Excellent article - It's now added to my "favorites" for reference.
Perhaps you could post the link to that article in your commentary next time you ping the HA list. It's an excellent article and some of the newer members of your list might want to see it as well.
Will do, thanks.
Good morning to you! Good news about Terri Schiavo! I was telling some friends the background last night, before I heard the good news. Sometimes I just can't really believe the evil that is going on. As though I'm some kind of Pollyanna.
Thanks for everything you do!
It is quite natural and normal to have aversion to sinful behavior. It is not until our consciences are corrupted that we lose this aversion.
Again the homosexual activists are trying to equate aversion to the sinful behavior and practices of a particular person and aversion to the person himself.
You're welcome. And Thanks!
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