"The Scriptures are very clear in unambiguously declaring homosexual acts as a serious sin and as disordered. 'Disordered' 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 joined by God, and we are not to separate what what God has joined. In the Old Testament, Scripture describes the sinful and disordered quality of homosexual acts by the use of the word 'abomination,' and in the New Testament, St. Paul calls homosexual acts 'paraphysin' (contrary to nature). There can be no sexual intercourse for any who are not in a valid heterosexual marriage. We 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. Sadly those of unalterable same-sex attraction have no recourse to marriage. But all of us bear burdens of one sort or another, and not everyone is able to partake in everything life offers." -
Father Charles Pope, writing for the Archdiocese of Washington.
RELATED: Two weeks ago Pope
denounced the New York City St. Patrick's Day committee for authorizing an "anal sex celebration." Shortly after I publicized that column, the Archdiocese deleted it from their site.
Labels: bigotry, Catholic Church, Charles Pope, religion
