[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n
source: https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/opinion\/homosexual-acts-cannot-be-approved-or-celebrated-by-the-church-heres-why<\/a><\/p>\n In recent years, homosexuality has frequently been in the news. An increasingly nationwide effort to make homosexual acts something to celebrate has gained great ground and sowed serious confusion even among those who describe themselves as Christian and Catholic. Hence, it is necessary once again to instruct on this matter and to reassert what Scripture plainly teaches and why the Church cannot affirm what the world demands we affirm.<\/p>\n An essential\u00a0fact is that\u00a0the Scriptures are very clear in\u00a0unambiguously,\u00a0uncompromisingly declaring homosexual acts\u00a0as a serious sin and as disordered.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cDisordered\u201d here means that they are acts that are not ordered to their proper end or purpose. Sexual acts are, by their very nature, ordered to procreation and to the bonding of the mother and father who will raise the children conceived by their sexual intimacy. These ends or purposes have been intrinsically\u00a0joined by God, and we are not to separate what God has joined.\u00a0\u00a0In the Old Testament, Scripture describes the sinful and disordered quality of homosexual acts by the use of the word \u201cabomination,\u201d and in the New Testament, St. Paul calls homosexual acts \u201cparaphysin<\/em>\u201d (contrary to nature).<\/p>\n Attempts by some to reinterpret Scripture to mean something else are fanciful, at best,<\/strong>\u00a0and use theories that require twisted logic and questionable historical views in an attempt to set aside the very plain meaning of the texts.<\/p>\n Likewise in the wider culture, among those who do not accept Scripture, there has been\u00a0an increasingly insistent refusal to acknowledge what the design of the human body plainly discloses:\u00a0<\/strong>that the man is for the woman, and the woman is for the man. The man is not for the man, nor the woman for the woman. This is plainly set forth in the design of our bodies. The outright refusal to see what is plainly visible and literally built into our bodies is not only a sign of intellectual stubbornness and darkness (cf Rom 1:18, 21), but it\u00a0also leads to significant issues with health, even to deadly diseases.<\/p>\n And we who believe in the definitive nature of scriptural teaching<\/strong>\u00a0on all aspects of human sexuality are not merely considered out-of-date by many in our culture, but are being increasingly pressured to affirm what we cannot reasonably affirm. Cardinal Francis George recently\u00a0expressed\u00a0the current situation in this way:<\/p>\n In recent years, society has brought social and legislative approval to all types of sexual relationships that used to be considered \u201csinful.\u201d Since the biblical vision of what it means to be human tells us that not every friendship or love can be expressed in sexual relations, the church\u2019s teaching on these issues is now evidence of intolerance for what the civil law upholds and even imposes. What was once a request to live and let live has now become a demand for approval. The \u201cruling class,\u201d those who shape public opinion in politics, in education, in communications, in entertainment, is using the civil law to impose its own form of morality on everyone. We are told that, even in marriage itself, there is no difference between men and women, although nature and our very bodies clearly evidence that men and women are not interchangeable at will in forming a family. Nevertheless, those who do not conform to the official religion, we are warned, place their citizenship in danger<\/em>\u00a0[1<\/a>].<\/p>\n Whatever pressures many may wish to place on the Church to conform, however they may wish to \u201cshame\u201d us into compliance by labeling us with adjectives such as bigoted, homophobic, or intolerant, we cannot comply<\/strong>\u00a0with their demands. We must remain faithful to scriptural teaching, to our\u00a0commitment to natural law, and to Sacred Tradition. We simply cannot affirm things such as fornication and\u00a0homosexual acts and reject the revelation of the body as it comes from God.<\/p>\n What some call intolerance or \u201chatred\u201d\u00a0is, for us who believe, rather, a principled stance<\/strong>\u00a0wherein we see ourselves as unable to overrule the clear and unambiguous teaching of Holy Scripture. And this teaching exists at every stage of revelation, from\u00a0the opening pages right through to the final books of Sacred Writ. The Church has no power to override what God has said; we cannot cross out sentences or tear pages from the Scripture. Neither can we simply reverse Sacred Tradition or pretend that the human body, as God has designed it, does not manifest what it clearly does.<\/p>\n The Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/strong>\u00a0announces this principled stance with eloquence and with an understanding of the difficulties encountered by those with same-sex attraction:<\/p>\n Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that \u201chomosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.\u201d They are contrary to the natural law. They 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.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them 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 fulfill God\u2019s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord\u2019s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.<\/em><\/p>\n 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<\/em>\u00a0(CCC 2357-2359).<\/p>\n We can speak no other way.<\/strong>\u00a0We do not detest those of same sex-attraction, but we as a Church owe them the same truth we have always proclaimed as coming from God, and out of respect we must hold them to the same standards of chastity by which\u00a0all must live.<\/p>\n There can be no sexual intercourse for any who are not in a valid heterosexual marriage.<\/strong>\u00a0We cannot give approval for it; we do not have the power to do this, no matter how insistent, forceful, or even punitive the demands that we do so become. This will not change because it cannot change.<\/p>\n Homosexuals are not being singled out in this matter. As we saw in yesterday\u2019s post, fornication (pre-marital sex) is also set forth by scripture and tradition as a very serious mortal sin<\/strong>\u00a0(cf Eph 5:5- 7; Gal 5:16-21; Rev 21:5-8; Rev. 22:14-16; Mt. 15:19-20; 1 Cor 6:9-20; Col 3:5-6; 1 Thess 4:1-8; 1 Tim 1:8-11; Heb 13:4). It cannot be approved no matter how widespread its acceptance becomes. One standard of sexual norms applies to all people, whatever their orientation.\u00a0 read more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Homosexual acts cannot be approved or celebrated by the Church \u2013 Here\u2019s why source: https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/opinion\/homosexual-acts-cannot-be-approved-or-celebrated-by-the-church-heres-why In recent years, homosexuality has frequently been in the news. 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