On Homosexuality
I read in the paper on Thurs. that Mr. Cauchon, the federal minister of Justice, is calling on all the provinces to rush through the legalization of same-sex marriages, even before there has been any federal legislation on the matter. So it would seem that our current administration under Jean Chretien, has already decided that homosexuals will be allowed to marry.
Our church as well as other Christian churches and other religious groups are fighting this but the writing is on the wall. They hope to fight it at the Supreme Court level, but I very much doubt that they will get a sympathetic ear from the Supreme Court of Canada, given its inherent liberal and secular bias. This development is yet another warning sign of the depth of depravity our Western culture is sinking into.
We live in a culture that is obsessed with the idea of individual rights, even to the detriment of the common good. Indeed, there is no longer any clear moral or philosophical foundation to this prevailing notion of individual rights. The natural moral law used to be the foundation, a foundation that suited all religions and people of good will, but no more. We talk about abortion rights, sexual pleasure rights, but few talk about the foundation, if any, of such rights.
Homosexual acts are always objectively disordered and immoral. Therefore, they can never be approved as morally permissible according to the constant teaching of the Roman Catholic Magesterium. Both Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition attest to the illicit nature of homosexual acts. There isn’t a single world monotheistic religion that approves of homosexual acts.
Homosexual persons are already protected in the law against discrimination, yet they insist on being allowed to marry. This is a perversion of the meaning of marriage – and frankly, it makes me mad, it makes me sad, and it sickens me.
This topic has nothing to do with the readings this Sunday, but I feel it is a timely issue that must be addressed. Are we going to believe the constant teaching of the Church on this issue? Or are we going to shrug our shoulders and accept what our government is doing, and say nothing in protest?
The Bible consistently condemns homosexual acts as immoral, starting with Gen. 19:4-11 and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, Levit. 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:26,27; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; 1 Tim. 1:9-19. There is no way you can interpret scripture any other way than to admit that homosexual acts are condemned. For e.g., Rom. 1:26-27 states: “That is why God has abandoned them to degrading practices: why their women have turned from natural intercourse to unnatural practices, and why their menfolk have given up natural intercourse to be consumed with passion for each other, men doing shameless things with men and getting an appropriate reward for their perversion.”
Scripture consistently speaks against homosexual acts. The early Church Fathers were unanimous in condemning homosexual acts; Church councils throughout the centuries condemned them – the collective human wisdom of all major cultures and religions condemns homosexual acts – but that doesn’t matter to this government – they know better – they are the enlightened ones now – it’s not a matter of right or wrong – it’s a matter of individual rights to them – and that settles the argument.
The Church’s teaching on the meaning of marriage stands opposed to homosexual acts. If we look at the Vatican II document “The Church in the Modern World”, the encyclical, “Humanae Vitae”, and the current Catechism of the Catholic Church, we see that sex has a meaning, just like every other human activity, and the meaning of conjugal relations is twofold, namely, the permanent one flesh union of husband and wife; and the procreation of children.
The two cannot be artificially separated. Any sexual act has to fulfill the purposes of marriage in order to be moral. The unitive and the procreative -- celebrating and confirming the one flesh union of man and woman in marriage, and openness to children. That is what human sexual expression is oriented towards. When we separate the unitive from the procreative and say that sex is just an itch to be scratched – that sex is an appetite to be sated in any way we like – then we diminish what it means to be human.
Homosexual relations cannot accomplish either of these 2 criteria, therefore they are immoral. The Church teaches that conjugal love within marriage is something holy and sublime. It involves a unique mutual gift of self. The Fathers of the 2nd Vatican Council desired to show the world the goodness of the marital state; it makes both husband and wife better persons, it merges the human with the divine (Jesus elevated marriage to a sacrament). There is simply no comparison between heterosexual marriages and sex outside of marriage, much less same sex unions.
The institution if marriage is already under siege from many quarters – from radical ideological feminists, from the gay lobbies, from the media, and most of all from Satan himself. Because next to destroying the Church his main mission is to destroy marriage and families. You don’t need religion to know that homosexual marriage is an abomination – it goes against human reason and natural law.
It will further undermine the institution of marriage in that homosexuals will redefine it to suit themselves, especially the part of being sexually exclusive. The rampant promiscuity within the gay community is of pathological proportions, and calling their unions “marriage” is not going to change that. Do you understand what we are doing as a society if this goes through? We are thumbing our noses at God, because marriage is ordained of God; it is a holy institution, not something we can redefine just because a few secular Supreme Court justices decree that it goes against the Charter of Rights. The laws of God are immutable and stand for all people for all time.
The whole thing is absurd. To give an analogy as to how absurd, suppose the Supreme Court of Canada should declare the fact that the earth is tilted on its axis is discriminatory against people who live in the northern hemisphere. There’s got to be something in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms about this, because it’s not fair we don’t get as much sun as the people in the southern hemisphere. That would be absurd wouldn’t it? Why? Because God has established immutable laws—laws of nature -- that govern the stars, the solar system, the rotation of the earth and the seasons. You can’t change those laws by some Supreme Court fiat.
In the same way, God has laid down laws governing the moral universe, immutable laws governing the human person in relation to his creator and his neighbour in society, and marriage is one of those laws and all the kings horses and all the king’s men cannot change it. It is absurd and the height of hubris to try. Whether it’s the natural laws governing the universe, or the natural moral laws governing man, God is not mocked.
To our long litany of sins that cry out against heaven, from abortion to promiscuity, to greed and materialism, we now add this latest abomination. Canada is paving the way for a most severe judgment from God. May God have mercy on us.
Fr. McLenehan may be contacted at
[email protected]
or by writing him at:
St. Mary's Parish
63 Elgin Street
Collingwood, Ontario, L9Y 3L6
This item 5343 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
