Charles E.

Rice
Right or Wrong?
March 1, 2010

A big issue at Notre Dame a few weeks ago was “sexual orientation” and the status of the

Notre Dame Gay/ Lesbian/ Bisexual/ Transgender (GLBT) community. Enough time has passed

to make it useful to review some of the governing principles as found in the teaching of the

Catholic Church. That teaching includes four pertinent elements:

1. Homosexual acts are always objectively wrong. The starting point is the Catechism:

“Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience

an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction to 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. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture,

which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, Tradition has always

declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ 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.” No. 2357.

Homosexual acts are doubly wrong. They are not only contrary to nature. They

are wrong also because they are extra-marital. The Letter on the Pastoral Care of

Homosexual Persons, issued in 1986 with the approval of John Paul II, said, “It is

only in the marital relationship that the use of the sexual faculty can be morally good.

A person engaging in homosexual behavior therefore acts immorally. To choose

 someone of the same sex for one’s sexual activity is to annul the rich symbolism and

meaning, not to mention the goals of the Creator’s sexual design.” No 7.

2. Since homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered,” the inclination toward those acts

is disordered. An inclination to commit any morally disordered act, whether theft,

fornication or whatever, is a disordered inclination. “The number of men and women

who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies,” says the Catechism, “is not

negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of

them a trial.” No. 2358. That inclination, however, is not in itself a sin.

3. “[M]en and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies,” says the

Catechism, “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign

of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.” No. 2358. In a culture

which tends to marginalize and disrespect those with physical or psychological

disorders, it will be useful to recall the admonition of the 1986 Letter that “The

human person, made in the image and likeness of God, can hardly be adequately

described by a reductionist reference to his or her sexual orientation…. Today the

Church provides a badly needed context for the care of the human person when she…

insists that every person has a fundamental identity: the creature of God and, by

grace, his child and heir to eternal life.” No. 16. The prohibition of “unjust”

discrimination, however, does not rule out the making of reasonable and just

distinctions with respect to military service, the wording of university

nondiscrimination policies and other matters including admission to seminaries. As

the Congregation for Catholic Education said in its 2005 Instruction on the subject,

“the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the
 seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated

homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’” No. 2.

4. “[M]en and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies…. are called to

fulfill 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. 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.” Catechism, nos. 2358, 2359.

The positive, hopeful teaching of the Church on marriage, the family and the

transmission of life is founded on the dignity of the person as a creature made in the image and

likeness of God. The “gay rights” movement is, instead, a predictable consequence of the now-

dominant contraceptive ethic. Until the Anglican Lambeth Conference of 1930, no Christian

denomination had ever said that contraception could ever be objectively right. The Catholic

Church continues to affirm the traditional Christian position that contraception is intrinsically an

objective evil.

Contraception, said Paul VI in Humanae Vitae in 1968, is wrong because it deliberately

separates the unitive and procreative aspects of the sexual act. If, sex has no intrinsic relation to

procreation and if, through contraception, it is entirely up to man (of both sexes) whether sex will

have any such relation, how can one deny legitimacy to sexual acts between two men or between

two women? The contraceptive society cannot deny that legitimacy without denying itself.

Further, if individual choice prevails without regard to limits of nature, how can the choice be
limited to two persons? Polygamy (one man, multiple women), polyandry (one woman, multiple

men), polyamory (sexual relations between or among multiple persons of one or both sexes) and

other possible arrangements, involving the animal kingdom as well, would derive legitimacy

from the same contraceptive premise that justifies one-on-one homosexual relations.

It would be a mistake to view the homosexual issue as simply a question of individual

rights. The militant “gay rights” movement seeks a cultural and legal redefinition of marriage

and the family, contrary to the reality rooted in reason as well as faith. Marriage, a union of man

and woman, is the creation not of the state but of God himself as seen in Genesis. Sacramento

coadjutor bishop Jaime Soto, on Sept. 26, 2008, said: “Married love is a beautiful, heroic

expression of faithful, life-giving, life-creating love. It should not be accommodated and

manipulated for those who would believe that they can and have a right to mimic its unique

expression.” Space limits preclude discussion here of the “same-sex marriage” issue, which we

defer to a later column.

Professor Emeritus Rice is on the law school faculty. He may be reached at 574-633-4415 or

rice.1@nd.edu.