Homosexual Marriage and the Catholic Church

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Homosexual Marriage and the Catholic Church

Imagine you were born into a world where being straight was taboo. You were raised by same sex parents, as all of your friends. Fornication of the opposite sex was merely to have children, but a relationship between the two was virtually unheard of. It was believed that same sex parents provided a better home for children. Love between a man and a man (or a woman and a woman) was believed to be the perfect love because it was loving an equal. If one should love the opposite sex it was believed that they secretly wanted to be that sex. Everything you have ever known and been taught was based around same sex relationships. When you watch television every program along with every commercial is same-sex oriented. After a short period of time, at a relatively early age, you realize that there is something a little different about you. Think of the isolation you would have felt when you found yourself walking down the street and instead of turning your head at the same sex, your head was turned at the opposite. A feeling that you might be straight in a homosexual world would be terrifying. You know if you were to ever express your attraction to the opposite sex you would be outcast, beat up, made fun of, or maybe even disowned by your own family for being different.

These are the kind of fears homosexuals must face in our heterosexual world. It is our lack of compassion that has chosen to outcast them instead of trying to understand why they are the way they are. Sexual orientation cannot be chosen, yet still small minded people discriminate against homosexuals. The Catholic Church does not condone homosexual activity, but she also does not condemn homosexual orientat...

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...New York :

Continuum, 1989.

Gramick, Jeannine, et al. Homosexuality and the Catholic Church. Illinois : The Thomas More Press, 1983.

"Homosexuality." Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine. 1997. ed.

"Homosexuality, Social Implications of." The New Dictionary of Catholic Social Thought. 1994. ed.

Isay, Richard A. Being Homosexual. New York : Avon Books, 1990.

Kirk, Marshall. After the Ball. New York : Doubleday, 1989.

Leviticus. Holy Bible. Kansas : Catholic Bible Publishers, 1970. 18:22.

Nugent, Robert, et al. A Challenge to Love. New York : Crossroad, 1983.

Regeneration. No Easy Way. Baltimore : Regeneration, Inc., 1991.

The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Missouri : Liguori Publications, 1992. p. 566.

Sullivan, Andrew. Virtually Normal. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

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