Vision of Saint Catherine of Sienna on impurity
Dialogue with God The Father
"(...) those unhappy men do not only check such tendency, but that they do something much worse and they fall in the vice against the nature. They are blind and stupid, whose confused intelligence does not perceive the vileness in which they live.
I displease this last sin, because I am the Eternal Purity. It is to Me so abominable that by its cause I made disappear five cities. (cf. Genesis 19, 24). My Justice is not able to support it more.
That sin, nevertheless, does not only dislike to Me. It is even unbearable to the demons, who are had by patterns by those unfortunate ministers.
The demons do not tolerate that sin. They do not wish the virtue, but by his angelical origin, they challenge to see so stinking vice.
They throw the poisoned arrows of lust, but they turn round at the moment at which the sin is committed ".
(Saint Catherine of Sienna. The Dialogue)
Catholic Catechism on Homosexuality
2357 Homosexuality
refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant
sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the
centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself
on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity [1], tradition has
always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered [2]." They are contrary to the
natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective
and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstance can they be approved.
2358 The number of men
and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. [They do not choose their
homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial.] This inclination, which is objectively disordered,
constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.
Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill
God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the
difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner
freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can
and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
[1] cf. Gen 19:1-29
(story of Sodom) cf. Rom 1:24-27 "men... were inflamed with lust for one another" cf. 1 Cor 6:10
"Neither the... homosexual offenders... will inherit the kingdom of God." cf. 1 Tim 1:10 "the ungodly
and sinful... perverts" Cf. Gen 19:1-29 1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot
was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down
with his face to the ground. 2 "My lords," he said, "please turn aside to your servant's house. You can
wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning." "No," they
answered, "we will spend the night in the square." 3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with
him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4
Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and
old--surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight?
Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." 6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut
the door behind him 7 and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two
daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you
like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my
roof." 9 "Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and
now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot
and moved forward to break down the door. 10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back
into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house,
young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door. 12 The two men said to Lot, "Do
you have anyone else here--sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to
you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD
against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it." 14 So Lot went out and spoke to his
sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, "Hurry and get out of this place,
because the LORD is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. 15 With
the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters
who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished." 16 When he hesitated, the men
grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city,
for the LORD was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said,
"Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or
you will be swept away!" 18 But Lot said to them, "No, my lords, please! 19 Your servant has
found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can't flee
to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I'll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to
run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it--it is very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared." 21 He
said to him, "Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22
But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it." (That is why the town was
called Zoar. 23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the LORD
rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah--from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus
he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities--and also the
vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 Early the
next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. 28
He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense
smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace. 29 So when God destroyed the cities of the
plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities
where Lot had lived. Rom 1:24-27 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their
hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the
truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is
forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women
exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural
relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with
other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 1 Cor 6:10 9 Do you not
know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually
immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor
the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. note: 1
Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:8-10 list arsenokoitai among those who will be excluded from the
Reign of God. This obscure term has been translated "homosexuals" but its exact meaning is debated.
1 Tim 1:10 9 We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the
ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,
10 for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers--and for whatever else is
contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he
entrusted to me. note: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:8-10 list arsenokoitai among those who
will be excluded from the Reign of God. This obscure term has been translated "homosexuals" but its
exact meaning is debated.
[2] cf. CDF, Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning
Sexual Ethics, VIII At the present time there are those who, basing themselves on observations in the
psychological order, have begun to judge indulgently, and even to excuse completely, homosexual
relations between certain people. This they do in opposition to the constant teaching of the
Magisterium and to the moral sense of the Christian people. A distinction is drawn, and it seems with
some reason, between homosexuals whose tendency comes from a false education, from a lack of
normal sexual development, from habit, from bad example, or from other similar causes, and is
transitory or at least not incurable; and homosexuals who are definitively such because of some kind of
innate instinct or a pathological constitution judged to be incurable. In regard to this second category
of subjects, some people conclude that their tendency is so natural that it justifies in their case
homosexual relations within a sincere communion of life and love analogous to marriage, in so far as
such homosexuals feel incapable of enduring a solitary life. In the pastoral field, these homosexuals
must certainly be treated with understanding and sustained in the hope of overcoming their personal
difficulties and their inability to fit into society. Their culpability will be judged with prudence. But no
pastoral method can be employed which would give moral justification to these acts on the grounds
that they would be consonant with the condition of such people. For according to the objective moral
order, homosexual relations are acts which lack an essential and indispensable finality. In Sacred
Scripture they are condemned as a serious depravity and even presented as the sad consequence of
rejecting God. This judgment of Scripture does not of course permit us to conclude that all those who
suffer from this anomaly are personally responsible for it, but it does attest to the fact that homosexual
acts are intrinsically disordered and can in no case be approved of.
(Catechism of the Catholic Church 1994)
The position of the Catholic church in relation to homosexuality
Following the repeated teaching of Scripture, the Catholic Church teaches that
homosexual acts are grave sins. The Catechism calls them "acts of grave depravity." We believe it is sinful for a person to
*act* on homosexual desires, or to unnecessarily put his or herself in a position where those
homosexual desires will be inflamed. We also believe the person has a moral obligation to overcome
temptation to homosexual acts, such as by fasting, prayer, and frequent reception of the sacraments.
Pastorally, those with a homosexual inclination are to be treated with love and sensitivity, while the
grave sinfulness of homosexual acts is also to be taught. Homosexuals are called to chastity. If they are
trying to live chastely, according to Christian teaching, they do not usually broadcast their orientation,
and so discrimination against them is not an issue. Those who are "openly gay," should not be the
subject of violence or malicious speech, but it is acceptable for society to refuse them certain positions,
such as the adoption of children, or enlistment in the military. As we read in the CDF document,
SOME CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING THE RESPONSE TO LEGISLATIVE
PROPOSALS ON THE NON-DISCRIMINATION OF HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS The
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
Revised statement issued on July 22, 1992:
"11. There are areas in which it is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account, for
example, in the placement of children for adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or athletic
coaches, and in military recruitment."
A landlord also has the right not to admit a gay couple into his or her housing:
"In some cities, municipal authorities have made public housing, otherwise reserved for families,
available to homosexual (and unmarried heterosexual) couples. Such initiatives, even where they seem
more directed toward support of basic civil rights than condonement of homosexual activity or a
homosexual lifestyle, may in fact have a negative impact on the family and society. Such things as the
adoption of children, the employment of teachers, the housing needs of genuine families, landlords'
legitimate concerns in screening potential tenants, for example, are often implicated."
MASCULINE AND FEMININE
Masculine and feminine go together in marriage. Masculine and masculine, or feminine and feminine,
do not. Same sex relationships violate God's creation of Adam and Eve. God said about Adam, "I will
make a helpmate fit for him." Man and woman help each other. It is a communion of persons.
Homosexual unions perverty that beautiful meshing of masculine and feminine. Indeed, in many
homosexual unions, one partner will overtly take on more of the masculine role and one will take on
more of the feminine. This in itself is clearly a strange caricature of masculinity and femininity. It's really
a simple thing: men should be masculine and women should be feminine. That doesn't mean men
should be "macho" or women should be "fragile china dolls." It just means the real differences between
the sexes are wonderful, and we should embrace them. And we see that these wonderful differences
do appear when men and women open their hearts to Jesus Christ. This is a wonderful thing. I think
one of the worst fruits of the 60's and 70's was the idea that the gender differences either don't exist,
or are trivial. I think that as the human heart opens itself more and more to the wonderful difference
between the genders, the heart can see more and more clearly how homosexuality violates the law of
God.
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