Catholic Church Homosexuality

The Catholic Church’s View on Homosexuality For centuries the Catholic Church has stood firm in its belief that homosexuality is wrong because it goes against natural law and is condemned by the Bible. The Catholic Church relies heavily on the Bible in order to support its stance. However when many of the Bible verses that the Catholic Church uses as support for its argument are looked at from a different angle, one can begin to unravel the very basis of the Catholic Church’s position against homosexuality. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church bases its stance on Bible verses from Genesis, Romans, 1 Corinthians, and 1 Timothy. The Catholic Church argues that these verses provide clear evidence that homosexuality

John Corvino, however, raises the debate that not all sex is for the purpose of procreation. He questions how the Catholic Church can approve of sex for sterile couples, who for obvious reasons cannot procreate, while disapproving of sex for homosexual couples. The Catholic Church answers this question by claiming that sex for sterile couples fulfills the “morally legitimate purposes” (Corvino 6) of pleasure and intimacy between partners. Corvino points out that by giving that answer, the Catholic Church should not be able to condemn sex for homosexual couples on the basis that it is not procreative because it can fulfill the same purposes that sex for sterile couples fulfills (6). Graydon Snyder and Kenneth Shaffer also argue that the Bible does not reject all people who cannot procreate. Their argument is based on a verse from Isaiah (Isaiah 56:3-5) that says a eunuch who keeps the Sabbath and does things that please the Lord will still have a place in Heaven (Snyder 48). If a eunuch, whose sexual acts can never lead to the birth of a child, can have a spot in Heaven, why shouldn’t homosexual people also have a place in Heaven? Verses from 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy are also used by the Catholic Church as evidence of the sinfulness of homosexuality. Verses from chapter six of 1 Corinthians and chapter one of 1 Timothy contain lists

Instead, the greatest weakness of this argument is the lack of passages in the Bible that mention homosexuality. According to Hays, in the entirety of the Bible, there are only six or seven very short passages that even mention homosexuality or homosexual acts (17). Hays insists that we should not be focusing on whether or not homosexuality is a sin based on the Bible, instead we should be considering whether or not we have the right to judge the people who partake in homosexual acts. Hays cites Paul in Romans 2:1-3 to show that none of are without sin and suggests that, just as it is said in the Bible, we should allow only those who are without sin the judge the sins of others