"Homosexuals hurt themselves."

Pictured, Albrecht Durer, "The Men's Baths"

"In his most powerful statements to date on issues involving sexual morality, Pope Benedict XVI said homosexuals end up destroying themselves so the Church has a duty to speak out on moral issues that affect the very spiritual and physical lives of man.

"In seeking to emancipate himself from his body (from the 'biological sphere'), [man] ends up by destroying himself," the pope told cardinals, archbishops, bishops and members of the Roman Curia last week in a traditional meeting overlooked by most of the world's press. "Against those who say that 'the Church should not involve herself in these matters,' we can only respond: does man not concern us too? The church and believers must raise their voices to defend man, the creature who, in the inseparable unity of body and spirit, is the image of God." - World Net Daily

Most homosexuals will fail to see the compassion in the Holy Father's words, as they fail to understand the teaching of the Church as regards homosexuality, in both the Catechism and various episcopal statements on the problem so mysteriously prevalent in contemporary times.

Many gay people would assert that homophobic tendencies in culture, and society are what hurts homosexual persons. Evidence of discrimination, gay bashing, and alienation would be their criteria in support of this claim.

When AIDs first appeared in the early 1980's, there was a huge denial amongst most gays that there could be any relationship to homosexual sex, and if there was, conspiracy theories abounded as to who was really infecting people. Gradually, places of free-range sex were closed, gay bathhouses were closed down, and gay public sex meeting places were policed. Homosexuals themselves began a campaign for safe sex, such as condom distribution and use, mutual or group sex that did not involve penetration or sharing bodily fluids, etc.

With the advent of new medications, persons with HIV found they could live longer and healthier. The plague mentality waned, and many, especially the young, thought the worst was over, or at least, the disease became more manageable. Sex gradually became freer and more unsafe, and infections once again began to rise.

Most likely, this will be what public opinion will assume the Holy Father is referring to - destruction of gay persons through STD's. I highly doubt the Holy Father was being so simplistic and superficial in his statement.

So how does a homosexual destroy himself? We concentrate all of our values upon the here and now. Hence, HIV and AIDS aside, if we look for how a homosexual can destroy himself, we may find other more obvious means, when we examine the lifestyle and values of gay culture.

As a sex based lifestyle, gay culture exalts physical beauty to the point of idolatry. Almost every attractive male becomes a sexualized, or romanticized object. Homosexual literature and publications are the clearest example of this predacious inclination, pornography is normative in the homosexual subculture. In this sense, homosexuality debases and dehumanizes sexuality. This erotic 'love' withers the soul, and diminishes the human spirit.

Depression, chemical dependency, compulsive behaviors often accompany this disintegration - even in the best of homosexual persons - the most balanced and functional. The widespread use of anti-depressants and prescription sleep aids may often take the place of drug abuse or alcoholism, yet there remains the underlying problem. Again, societal marginalization or prejudice may be claimed as the reason for this psychological imbalance - what they like to refer to as homophobia. Yet, even in a perfect world of total acceptance and all that goes along with that, such as gay marriage, adoption of children, freedom to be promiscuous, etc. - even in this situation, there would remain an underlying, fundamental discontent. That is because homosexual sex is intrinsically disordered, no matter how romanticised or emotionally captivating. And the acts are DOA - dead on arrival - they are always unproductive ( not life generating), except in the sense of selfish sensual gratification.
Ultimately, and this is controversial, homosexuals destroy themselves the more they force their lifestyle choice upon the public, disrupting the common good. Nature rebels against any perversion, and there is inevitably a natural consequence, even chastisement, for sin . The Church warns against any discrimination or persecution of homosexual persons, and has spoken out against these evils and resulting violence. The Church compassionately invites homosexual persons to conversion of life, to share fully in the sacramental life of the Church, and thus to inherit eternal life.

Which leads me to the conclusion that the Holy Father, when saying homosexuals destroy themselves, he must ultimately be referring to one's eternal salvation. All the evils I refer to are nothing compared to the loss of one's immortal soul.

Of course, I'm just a blogger, and I've only read an article about what the Holy Father said, I do not know his mind, nevertheless this is my take on his statement. Although I do believe, one's active rejection of the teaching of the Church and the commandments, while embracing and advocating an illicit lifestyle, for the sake of some semblance of happiness in this life can indeed result in the loss of heaven and the pains of hell for all eternity. In this sense, even the successful, happy and well adjusted homosexual can destroy himself.
(from the blog "Abbey Road" http://abbey-roads.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2006-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2007-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=50 )

This is very good: Fr. Paul Check on why chastity is an essential virtue for those with same-sex attraction—and for all Christians.


Fr. Paul Check is the director of Courage. Catholic World Report has an excellent interview with Fr. Check on homosexuality, identity and the grace of chastity.  I will post some important points below.

Yesterday I touched on identity and 'causation' - Fr. Check does too in this interview.

The Catechism describes the same-sex inclination as objectively disordered. Now, we need to be plain, those words fall very hard on some ears because when they are heard it immediately sounds as if, or can sound as if, we are talking about a person—that a person is somehow disordered, not whole, not complete. But from the context of the Catechism, we can see that is not what is being said at all. What is being said is that the appetite, the erotic attraction to a member of the same sex, is out of harmony with human nature, it is misdirected. And because it is misdirected, and because we live in a world governed by cause and effect, then perhaps with some careful reflection we might be able to ascertain what it is that has caused that disordered attraction. 

 On the recent decision by the Boy Scouts to allow openly homosexual scouts, but not leaders?

 My first concern is the boys who self-identify as “gay” or “homosexual.” And the question is: why are they doing that? If we go back to our prior discussion about identity, the Church is reluctant to label people in this way, and I think we want to do anything we can to avoid encouragement of that label, particularly for adolescents. The teenage years are a period of discovery and adventure in a certain sense and a time of coming to know oneself. And that has to be guided properly so that self-entanglement doesn’t take place. Many different things are happening at this age and it seems, at best, premature in that stage of development for someone to take a label for himself that is not reflective of his entire being. 

[...]

In Veritatis Splendor, Blessed Pope John Paul II says that we are in some degree changed by our actions, although we have a fixed human nature. The more a young person self-identifies, the more he is already making a choice in order to firm up that identity in his mind. The better hope is to caution a great reserve in this and to charitably and prudently establish trust with the young person and see what may lie behind the same-sex attraction, so that very real help can be given. But encouragement to act out, even if it is just self-identification—certainly encouragement to act out sexually—is not going to be good, but is going to reinforce what is in fact a false identity which can only lead them to unhappiness. The point is that the same-sex attraction or desire can never be acted upon consistent with our human nature and therefore it will always put the person at cross-purposes with himself or herself.

"Nothing is outside god's providence."

We have to want to live chastely, cheerfully, and joyfully. The problem of pornography and the problem of contraception are things that are wide-spread within the Catholic community, including Mass-going Catholics. We have to examine our own conviction that chastity is essential for the joy of human relationships. We cannot expect that other people are only going to do what we say they should do, such as, “Don’t marry someone of the same sex.” We can hardly expect to be a compelling voice if we are not already convinced of the veracity of all that the Church teaches us, so we have to live that virtue cheerfully and joyfully. And if we do, other people will see it and be attracted to it.

We have to return to that kind of thinking of the early Christians, knowing full well that the current culture will be hostile. It gives us a spirit of purpose. We know it will be hard. Chesterton said, “Christians go gaily into the dark.” Now maybe we have to change that to “Christians go cheerfully into the dark” because of the way that word has been distorted, but Chesterton was right. A down-faced, angry Christian fulminating at the world is not going to be a good instrument of evangelization. We need that trust and confidence in God that St. Thérèse had and showed us so magnificently. We need that now and to try to live it, and we can! God’s grace will make it possible. - Catholic World Report.