History of the Catholic Church and homosexuality

The Christian tradition has generally proscribed any and all noncoital genital activities, whether engaged in by couples or individuals, regardless of whether they were of the same or different sex.[1] This position has been maintained through the centuries by the Roman Catholic Church, to the present day. The Catholic Church's position specifically on homosexuality developed from the teachings of the Church Fathers, which was in stark contrast to Greek and Roman attitudes towards same-sex relations.[2][3][4]

Canon law regarding same-sex sexual activity has mainly been shaped through the decrees issued by a number of ecclesiastical councils.[5] Initially, canons against "sodomy" were aimed simply at ensuring clerical or monastic discipline; and were only later widened in the medieval period to include laymen.[6] By the Middle Ages, the Catholic clergy increasingly encourage the pious to hunt out those committing homosexual acts, and to hand them over to secular authorities for punishment. In Spain the Inquisition tried nearly a thousand individuals for sodomy, and a number were executed.[7]

Early Church

Influence of the Church Fathers

The Catholic Church's position specifically on homosexuality developed from the teachings of the Church Fathers, which was in stark contrast to Greek and Roman attitudes towards same-sex relations including the "(usually erotic) homosexual relationship between an adult male and a pubescent or adolescent male" that is called pederasty.[8][9][10]

The early 2nd century treatise, the Didache (which influenced thinking by some of the Church Fathers), includes in a list of commandments: "You shall not corrupt boys."[note 1] David F. Greenberg gives it as one example of the early Christian writings of the first two centuries that were "unequivocably opposed to male prostitution and pederasty — probably the most visible forms of homosexuality in their time".[11]

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–c. 215) rebuked heathens for worshipping gods who indulged in debauching of boys.[12] Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260/265–339/340) wrote of God "having forbidden all unlawful marriage, and all unseemly practice, and the union of women with women and men with men".[13]

The Apology of Aristides of Athens, presented to Emperor Hadrian around 117–138 CE, scorned the practices and acts of the Greek pagans who worshipped gods some of whom "polluted themselves by lying with males".[14][note 2][15]

Basil of Caesarea (329 or 330 – 379) was among the first to talk about penalties, advising in a letter that, "He who is guilty of unseemliness with males will be under discipline for the same time as adulterers."[16] Taking Basil's lead, Gregory of Nyssa's Canonical Letter to Letoius of Mytilene (Epist. canonica 4, 390 CE) also prescribes the same period of penance for adultery and for "craving for the male".[17]

John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom (c. 347–407), the Archbishop of Constantinople, was particularly vocal on the subject - loathing homosexuality.[18] His most notable discourse in this regard is his fourth homily on Romans 1:26–27, where he argues that those who have sex with the same gender must do so because they are insane: "All of these affections then were vile, but chiefly the mad lust after males; for the soul is more the sufferer in sins, and more dishonored than the body in diseases. ... [The men] have done an insult to nature itself. And a yet more disgraceful thing than these is it, when even the women seek after these intercourses, who ought to have more shame than men."[19] He went on to describe homosexuality as the worst of sins (greater than murder). Punishment will be found in hell for such transgressors, and that women can be guilty of the sin as much as men (although the former disrupt the patriarchal hierarchy through such as act). Chrysostom argues that the male passive partner has effectively renounced his manhood and become a woman – such an individual deserves to be "driven out and stoned". Chrysostom was particularly influential in shaping early Christian thought that same-sex desire was an evil that ultimately resulted in social injustice – altering the traditional interpretation of Sodom as a place of inhospitality, to one where the sexual transgressions of the Sodomites became paramount.[20] Allen describes the sermon as the "climax and consummation of homophobia in the late classical world".[21]

Early Church Councils

Canon law regarding same-sex sexual activity has mainly been shaped through the decrees issued by a number of ecclesiastical councils.[22] Initially, canons against sodomy were aimed at ensuring clerical or monastic discipline, and were only widened in the medieval period to include laymen.[23]

The early 4th-century Council of Elvira (305-306) was the first church council to deal with the issue directly, excluding from communion anyone who had sexual intercourse (stuprum) with a boy:[24][25][26]

Canons 16 and 17 of the Council of Ancyra (314), which "became the standard source for medieval ecclesiastical literature against homosexuality",[27] impose on "those who have been or who are guilty of bestial lusts" penances whose severity varies with the age and married status of the offender, allowing access to communion only at death for a married man over fifty years old (canon 16); and impose a penance also on "defilers of themselves with beasts, being also leprous, who have infected others [with the leprosy of this crime]".[28]

In the sixth century, the Greek chronicler John Malalas wrote about Isaiah, Bishop of Rhodes and Alexander, Bishop of Diospolis who had been punished by the Prefect of Thrace (Victor) for "homosexual practices". Isaiah was tortured severely and exiled, while Alexander had his genitals amputated and was subsequently paraded around the city on a litter. As a result the Christian Emperor Justinian (c.e 482 – 565) decreed that all caught for pederasty should have their genitals amputated. Many homosexual men were arrested in the wake of this, and died from their injuries. An atmosphere of fear followed.[29]

In Iberia, the Visigothic ruler Egica of Hispania and Septimania demanded that a church council confront the occurrence of homosexuality in the kingdom. In 693, the Sixteenth Council of Toledo issued a canon condemning guilty clergy to degradation and exile and laymen to a hundred lashes. Egica added an edict imposing the punishment of castration (as already in the secular law promulgated for his kingdom by his predecessor King Chinawith).[30][31][32]

The matter was also dealt with at the Council of Paris—in canons 34 and 69 (AD 829),[27] which went beyond Elvira and Ancyra in explicitly endorsing the death penalty for sodomy—claiming that it had led God to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and send the Great Flood[33][note 3][34] The concern at Paris was that toleration of sodomy might provoke God to give victory to the enemies of Christianity (i.e. Islam). At about the same time, the set of forged capitularies produced by the deacon Benedict Levita implied that Charlemagne had likewise supported the death penalty. Meanwhile canon 15 of the Council of Trolsy (AD 909) warned against "pollution with men or animals".[27]

Alongside this, penances for such sexual transgressions may increasingly be found in a few of the penitential books which first emerged in the 6th century in monastic communities in Ireland (including for women having sex with other women).[27][35]

Medieval and Early Modern period

By the late Middle Ages, the term "sodomy" had come to cover copulation between males, bestiality, and non-vaginal heterosexual intercourse,[7] coitus interruptus, masturbation, fellatio and anal sex (whether heterosexual or homosexual);[36] and it increasingly began to be identified as the most heinous of sins by authorities of the Catholic Church. In Italy, Dominican monks would encourage the pious to "hunt out" sodomites and once done to hand them to the Inquisition to be dealt with accordingly: "These clerical discourses provided a language for secular authorities to condemn sodomy... By persecuting sodomites as well as heretics, the Church strengthened its authority and credibility as a moral arbiter".[37]

Klaits writes: "From the twelfth century on, outsiders came under increasing verbal and physical attack from churchmen, allied secular authorities, and, particularly in the case of Jews, from the lower strata of the population"; and among "outsiders" he considers Jews, heretics, homosexuals, and magicians as having been among the most important.[38]

Pope Leo IX (d. 1054) labeled homosexuality "filthy", "execrable vice" and "obscene". Likewise around 1051, Saint Peter Damian wrote the Liber Gomorrhianus in which he argued for stricter ecclesiastical punishment for clerics guilty of "sins against nature".[39][40]

The Council of London in 1102 in 1102, called at the urging of English Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, explicitly denounced homosexual behavior as a sin for the first time at an English council.[41] Anselm felt that sodomy was widespread and was not condemned strongly enough or regarded with the seriousness that it should have. Confessors were urged to take account of such ignorance when hearing confessions for sodomy, and to take into account mitigating factors such as age and marital status before prescribing penance; and counselling was generally preferred to punishment. In Canons 28 and 29 the Council decreed that the people should be informed of the gravity of the sin, and their obligation to confess (particularly if they derived pleasure from it). Nevertheless, Anselm deferred publication of the proceedings, arguing further time was needed to clarify certain matters.[41] Boswell argues the decrees were never published at all.[42][43]

In 1179, Pope Alexander III presided over the Third Lateran Council in Rome which decreed (canon 11) that all those guilty of sodomy be removed from office or confined to penitential life in a monastery, if clergy; and be strictly excommunicated, if laity: "Let all who are found guilty of that unnatural vice for which the wrath of God came down upon the sons of disobedience and destroyed the five cities with fire, if they are clerics be expelled from the clergy or confined in monasteries to do penance; if they are laymen they are to incur excommunication and be completely separated from the society of the faithful."[44] The French theologian Alain de Lille (d. 1202) echoed the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah in his works - complaining that "such a great body of foul men roam and riot along the breadth of the whole earth", spreading perversion and impurity with "monstrous acts" endangering the wider community.[43]

At the same time, the German Abbess Hildegard of Bingen (d.1179), in her book Scivias detailing her visions which she attributed to God, condemned same-sex intercourse (including lesbianism): "A man who sins with another man as if with a woman sins bitterly against God ... a woman who takes up devilish ways and plays a male role in coupling with another woman is most vile in My sight, and so is she who subjects herself to such a one in this evil deed".[45]

Canon 14 of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 stated that if a priest suspended for unchastity of any kind — especially the vice that "on account of which the anger of God came from heaven upon the children of unbelief" (sodomy) — dared to celebrate Mass then he was to be deposed permanently from the priesthood.[note 4][46]

By the early 13th century (time of the Fourth Lateran Council) the Church determined that "secular authorities, as well as clergy, should be allowed to impose penalties on 'sodomites' for having had sexual relations", and by the end of this period, "Sodomites were now [regarded as] demons as well as sinners."[47] Civil authorities were in parallel trying the crime of sodomy in their own courts, although in practice applying even more severe punishments (Roman civil law had prescribed death by burning for those found guilty of sodomy).[48]

In 1232, Pope Gregory IX established the Roman Inquisition which investigated claims of sodomy - arguing that sodomites were "abominable persons despised by the world... more unclean than animals".[43]

Thomas Aquinas

In the Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas stated that "the unnatural vice" is the greatest of the sins of lust.[49] In his Summa contra Gentiles, traditionally dated to 1264, he argued against what he called "the error of those who say that there is no more sin in the emission of the semen than in the ejection of other superfluous products from the body" by saying that, after murder, which destroys an existing human being, disordinate emission of semen to the preclusion of generating a human being seems to come second.[50]

Alongside this, the German Dominican Albertus Magnus described homosexuality as a "foulness" that was both addictive and contagious.[43]

In 1424, Bernardino of Siena preached for three days in Florence, Italy against homosexuality and other forms of lust, calling for sodomites to be ostracized, and these sermons alongside measures by other clergy of the time strengthened opinion against homosexuals and encouraged the authorities to increase the measures of persecution.[51]

The Inquisition and homosexuality

In 1451, Pope Nicholas V enabled the Inquisition to prosecute men who practiced sodomy. Handed over to the civil authorities, those condemned were frequently burned in accordance with civil law.[48]

In 1478, with the papal bull Exigit Sinceras Devotionis Affectus, Pope Sixtus IV acceded to the request of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, granting them exclusive authority to name the inquisitors in their kingdoms. The Spanish Inquisition thus replaced the Medieval Inquisition which had been set up under direct papal control, and transferred it in Spain to civil control. In 1482, in response to complaints by relatives of the first victims, Sixtus wrote that he had not intended his grant to be abused in that way. However, strong pressure brought to bear on him prevented him from revoking it.[52]

Tomas de Torquemada was a prominent leader of the Spanish Inquisition. 150 sodomites were executed by burning in Spain from 1570–1630.

The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Spain was therefore under the control of its monarchs and the initial direction of the Dominican friar Tomas de Torquemada. At first it seems to have been reluctant to take on responsibility for trying those accused of sodomy, and that the Suprema (the governing body) ruled in 1509 that such cases were for the secular courts, which already punished sodomy with death. However, in 1524 the Suprema requested papal authorisation to prosecute sodomites. Pope Clement VII granted permission but only within the Kingdom of Aragon and on condition that trials be conducted according to the civil laws, not the standard inquisitorial procedure.[7] The Pope refused the request of King Philip II of Spain to extend the authority of the Spanish Inquisition to conducting such trials in the rest of Spain.[36]

Within Aragon and its dependent territories, the number of individuals that the Spanish Inquisition tried for sodomy,[7][36] between 1570 and 1630 was over 800[53] or nearly a thousand.[7] In Spain, those whom the Spanish Inquisition convicted and had executed "by burning without the benefit of strangulation" were about 150.[54] The Inquisition was harsh to sodomizers (more so for those committing bestiality than homosexuality), but tended to restrict death by burning only to those aged over twenty-five. Minors were normally whipped and sent to the galleys. Mildness was also shown to clergy, who were always a high proportion of those arrested.[55] In fact, conviction and execution for sodomy was easier to obtain from the civil courts in other parts of Spain than from the tribunals of the Inquisition in Aragon, and there executions for sodomy were much more numerous.[56] After 1633, where the Spanish Inquisition had jurisdiction for sodomy, it ceased treating it as requiring execution, and imposed lesser penalties in cases brought before it.[7]

The Portuguese Inquisition was established in 1536; and in 1539 Henry, Archbishop of Braga (later cardinal and king of Portugal) became Grand Inquisitor. (An earlier appointment as Portuguese Grand Inquisitor was Friar Diogo da Silva.)[57] It received 4,419 denunciations against individuals accused of sodomy, of whom 447 were subjected to a formal trial, and thirty were burnt at the stake, in accordance with the pre-1536 civil laws enacted under Kings Afonso V and Manuel I, and many others were sent to the galleys or to exile, temporary or permanent.[7]

In England, the accused were originally tried by church courts, which almost never punished homosexual behaviour.[48] This changed when Henry VIII, while still a member of the Roman Catholic Church, enacted the Buggery Act 1533, as part of his campaign to break the power of the Catholic Church in England.[58]

Council of Trent

Although homosexuality was not directly discussed at the Council of Trent, it did commission the drawing up of a catechism (following the successful lead of some Protestants) which stated: "Neither fornicators nor adulterers, nor the effeminate nor sodomites shall possess the kingdom of God."[59]

Modern Age

Vatican Councils

Neither the First Vatican Council nor the Second Vatican Council directly discussed the issue of homosexuality; but nor did they alter the judgement of earlier councils. However, homosexual activity was frequently referred to in general church documents as crimen pessimum (the worst crime).[60][61][62][63] including that codified in 1917.[64]

Modern-day popes

Pope Paul VI

In 1976 Pope Paul VI became the first pontiff in modern history to deny the accusation of homosexuality. In January 1976, he had published a homily, Persona Humana: Declaration on Certain Questions concerning Sexual Ethics, that outlawed pre or extra-marital sex, condemned homosexuality, and forbade masturbation.[65] In response, Roger Peyrefitte, who had already written in two of his books that Montini had a longtime homosexual relationship, repeated his charges in a magazine interview with a French gay magazine that, when reprinted in Italian, brought the rumors to a wider public and caused an uproar. He said that Montini was a hypocrite who had a longtime sexual relationship with a movie actor.[66][67][68] Widespread rumors identified the actor as Paolo Carlini,[69] who had a small part in the Audrey Hepburn film Roman Holiday (1953). In a brief address to a crowd of approximately 20,000 in St. Peters Square on 18 April, Montini called the charges "horrible and slanderous insinuations" and appealed for prayers on his behalf. Special prayers for Montini were said in all Italian Roman Catholic churches in "a day of consolation".[67][69][lower-alpha 1] The charges have resurfaced periodically. In 1994, Franco Bellegrandi, a former Vatican honour chamberlain and correspondent for the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, alleged that Montini had been blackmailed and had promoted fellow homosexuals to positions of power within the Vatican.[71] In 2006, the newspaper L'Espresso confirmed the blackmail story based on the private papers of police commander General Giorgio Manes. It reported that Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro had been asked to help.[69][72]

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II in Old Yankee Stadium, 1979

Homosexuality received no mention in papal encyclicals until Pope John Paul II's Veritatis Splendor of 1993, which "specifically proclaims the intrinsic evil of the homosexual condition"[73] and rejected the view of some theologians who questioned the basis upon which the church condemns as morally unacceptable "direct sterilization, autoeroticism, pre-marital sexual relations, homosexual relations and artificial insemination".[74]

John Cornwell has written that the pontificate of John Paul II increasingly saw sexual morality as a paramount concern, and homosexuality, alongside contraception, divorce and illicit unions, as a dimension of "the 'culture of death' against which he taught and preached with increasing vehemence".[75]

In John Paul II's teaching, homosexual intercourse is regarded as an utilization of another's body, not a mutual self-giving in familial love, physically expressed by the masculine and feminine bodies; and such intercourse is also performed by a choice of the will, unlike homosexual orientation, which he acknowledged is usually not a matter of free choice.[76]

On 5 October 1979, John Paul praised the bishops of the United States for stating that "homosexual activity ... as distinguished from homosexual orientation, is morally wrong". He said that, instead of "[holding] out false hope" to homosexuals facing hard moral problems, they had upheld "the true dignity, the true human dignity, of those who look to Christ's Church for the guidance which comes from the light of God's word".[77]

In 2000, he criticized the inaugural WorldPride event scheduled for Rome in that year as "an affront to the Great Jubilee of the year 2000" and as "an offence to the Christian values" of Rome, and recalled the Church's teaching that homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law, while every sign of unjust discrimination against homosexuals should be avoided.[78][79][80][81]

In response, the Dutch gay magazine, Gay Krant, and its readership initiated a case against the pope in the Dutch law courts, arguing that his comment that homosexual acts are contrary to the laws of nature[82] "give rise to hatred against, and discrimination of certain groups of people" in violation of Dutch law.[83] This came to end when the court ruled that he was immune from prosecution as a head of state (the Vatican).[84]

In his last personal work, Memory and Identity, published in 2005, John Paul II he referred to the "pressures" on the European Parliament to permit "homosexual 'marriage'". He wrote: "It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man".[85][86]

Benedict XVI

On 9 March 2012, Pope Benedict XVI, denouncing "the powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage", currents that the Washington Post described as a "cultural shift toward gay marriage in U.S.", told a group of United States bishops on their ad limina visit to Rome that "the Church's conscientious effort to resist this pressure calls for a reasoned defense of marriage as a natural institution consisting of a specific communion of persons, essentially rooted in the complementarity of the sexes and oriented to procreation. Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage."[87][88]

An essay by the French Chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim taking a clear position against gay marriage and denouncing the theory of acquired gender was quoted at length by Pope Benedict XVI in his 2012 Christmas address to the Roman Curia.[89][90]

The BBC reported that shortly before the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in February 2013, the Italian media in particular used unsourced reports to suggest that there was a "gay lobby" of clergy inside the Vatican who had been collaborating to advance personal interests, thereby opening the Holy See to potential blackmail, and even to suggest that this may have been one of the factors influencing Benedict's decision to resign.[91]

Francis

Pope Francis has repeatedly spoke about the need for the church to welcome and love all people, regardless of their sexual orientation. Speaking about gay people in 2013, he said that "the key is for the church to welcome, not exclude and show mercy, not condemnation."[92] In July of that year, he said "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?" "The problem," he said, "is not having this orientation. We must be brothers."[93][94]

Several LGBT groups welcomed the comments, noting that this was the first time a pope had used the word "gay" in public, and had also accepted the existence of gay people as a recognizable part of the Catholic Church community.[95] The Pope's attitude towards homosexuality earned him a place on the cover of the US gay news magazine The Advocate.[96] In October 2016, Francis said that "When a person (who is gay) arrives before Jesus, Jesus certainly will not say, 'Go away because you are homosexual'".[97]

Francis has also spoken of the importance of education in the context of the difficulties now facing children, indicating that the Church had a challenge in not being welcoming enough of children brought up in a multiplicity of household arrangements, specifically including the children of gay couples.[98] Francis presided over the 2014 Synod on the Family, where the working document called for less judgment towards people that are gay and more understanding towards same-sex couples in civil unions or marriages, as well as an equal welcome for children of such couples (including conferring baptism), while still rejecting the validity of same-sex marriage itself.[99][100]

In the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, issued in 2016, Francis encouraged better understanding from all members of the Church on the acceptance of gay people, without suggesting any specific doctrinal changes. He reiterated the need for every person to be respected regardless of their sexual orientation, and to be free from threats of aggression and violence.[101] During Pope Francis's visit to Ireland in August 2018 he built on this theme. The pontiff made clear that gay people had always been present throughout human history, and that it was essential for parents to remember that gay children remained part of the families and it was important for them to engage positively. In an accompanying press statement, he made clear that homosexuality should not be viewed by Catholics as an illness.[102]

Development of pro-gay movements within the Church

1960s

DignityUSA was founded in the United States in 1969 as the first group for gay and lesbian Catholics shortly after the Stonewall riots. It developed from the ministry of Father Patrick Xavier Nidorf, an Augustinian priest. It set out the belief that gay Catholics can "express our sexuality physically, in a unitive manner that is loving, life-giving, and life-affirming."[103] It also seeks to "work for the development of sexual theology leading to the reform of [the Church's] teachings and practices regarding human sexuality, and for the acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender peoples as full and equal members of the one Christ."[103] Meetings were initially held in San Diego and Los Angeles, before the organization ultimately became headquartered in Boston. It later spread to Canada.

1970s

Following the US Bishops’ 1976 Call To Action conference in Detroit, a group called Call to Action (CTA) was established to advocate a variety of changes in the Catholic Church, including in the church's teaching on sexual matters such as homosexuality. In addition to the US bishops' conference, it drew its mission from the Second Vatican Council, and in particular to its challenge to lay Catholics who had tended to defer initiatives entirely to the clergy.[104]

New Ways Ministry was set up in 1977 in the United States of America by the Salvatorian priest Robert Nugent and the School Sister of Notre Dame nun Jeannine Gramick.[105] This was in response to Bishop Francis Mugavero of Brooklyn who had invited them to reach out in "new ways" to lesbian and gay Catholics. As early as February 1976, Mugavero issued a pastoral letter entitled "Sexuality: God's Gift," defending the legitimate rights of all people, including those who were gay and lesbian. He said that they had been "subject to misunderstanding and at times unjust discrimination."[106] In addition to gay and lesbian Catholics, the letter also spoke to the widowed, adolescents, the divorced, and those having sexual relations outside of marriage, stating: "we pledge our willingness to help you ...to try to find new ways to communicate the truth of Christ because we believe it will make you free."[107] These sentiments inspired the pastoral efforts by the co-founders to build bridges between differing constituencies in Catholicism.[108]

1980s

In 1980, the Association of Priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago honored the Chicago branch of Dignity as the organization of the year. With the publication in 1987 of "On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons," which instructed bishops not to provide facilities for organizations that did not uphold official Catholic teaching on homosexuality, Catholic bishops in Atlanta, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Pensacola and Vancouver immediately excluded Dignity chapters, and "within a few months the organization was unwelcome on church property anywhere."[109]

In 1981, New Ways Ministry held its first national symposium on homosexuality and the Catholic Church, but Archbishop James Hickey of Washington, D.C. wrote to Catholic bishops and communities, asking them not to support the event. Despite this, more than fifty Catholic groups endorsed the program.[109]

1990s

In 1996, the bishop of Lincoln, Fabian Bruskewitz, excommunicated all members of Call to Action within his diocese. An appeal by the Nebraska Chapter was rejected by the Congregation for Bishops in 2006.[110][111]

The Rainbow Sash Movement was established in Melbourne, Australia in 1998. It has been most active in the United States, England, and Australia. The Rainbow Sash itself is a strip of a rainbow colored fabric which is worn over the left shoulder and is put on at the beginning of the mass. At the appropriate time, members go up to receive the Eucharist.[112] If denied, they go back to pews and remain standing,[113] but if the Eucharist is received then they go back to the pew and kneel in the traditional way.[114][115] Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said that members of the Rainbow Sash Movement disqualified themselves from Communion by making reception of it a display of opposition to the Church's teaching.[116] The Eucharist, a sign of unity,[117] can be denied when receiving it would be seen as an act of division or protest.[116]

Both Nugent and Grammick of New Ways Ministry were formally disciplined in 1999 when the Vatican imposed lifetime bans on any pastoral work involving gay people, declaring that the positions they advanced "do not faithfully convey the clear and constant teaching of the Catholic Church" and "have caused confusion among the Catholic people."[118] The move made Nugent and Gramick "folk heroes in liberal circles," where official teaching was seen as outdated and lacking compassion.[119] Similarly, the American bishops Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit and Matthew Clark of Rochester, New York were criticized for their association with New Ways Ministry, and their distortion of the theological concept of the "Primacy of Conscience" as an alternative to the actual teaching of the Catholic Church.[120]

2000s

In 2013, members of the Rainbow Sash Movement in Illinois planned to hold a prayer service in a cathedral for legalization of same-sex marriage, an initiative that Bishop Paprocki of Springfield called blasphemous.[121][122]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The literal Greek phrase is "ou paidophthorēseis", which means,"You shall not corrupt boys.
  2. ↑ Robert Grant in The Anchor Bible Dictionary argues that the language in the Syriac version against homosexuality is stronger, probably because it was presented to Antoninus Pius rather than the homosexual Hadrian.
  3. ↑ (John Boswell has called the canons a forgery in John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (University of Chicago Press 2009 ISBN 978-0-22606714-8), P. 177 arguing in fact that "attitudes towards homosexuality grew steadily more tolerant in the early Middle Ages").
  4. ↑ "That the morals and general conduct of clerics may be better let all strive to live chastely and virtuously, particularly those in sacred orders, guarding against every vice of desire, especially, so that in the sight of Almighty God they may perform their duties with a pure heart and chaste body. But lest the facility to obtain pardon be an incentive to do wrong, we decree that whoever shall be found to indulge in the vice of incontinence, shall, in proportion to the gravity of his sin, be punished in accordance with the canonical statutes, which we command to be strictly and rigorously observed, so that he whom divine fear does not restrain from evil, may at least be withheld from sin by a temporal penalty. If therefore anyone suspended for this reason shall presume to celebrate the divine mysteries, let him not only be deprived of his ecclesiastical benefices but for this twofold offense let him be forever deposed."
  1. ↑ In 1984, Paul Hofmann, a former correspondent for the New York Times, repeated the allegations.[70]

References

  1. ↑ Jeffrey Siker, Homosexuality and Religion
  2. ↑ David Sacks, Oswyn Murray, Lisa R. Brody (editors), Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World (Infobase Publishing 2009 ISBN 978-1-43811020-2), entry "Homosexuality"
  3. ↑ Michael Gagarin, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, Volume 1, pp. 25ff. ISBN 978-0-19517072-6
  4. ↑ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization (Harvard University Press 2006 ISBN 978-0-67403006-0), pp. 118ff
  5. ↑ Derrick S. Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition, London, Longmans, Green, 1955, p185
  6. ↑ Derrick S. Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition, London, Longmans, Green, 1955, cited in Paul Halsall, "Homosexuality and Catholicism Bibliography"
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Haggerty, George E. (2000). Gay histories and cultures: an encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis, pp. 470-471
  8. ↑ David Sacks, Oswyn Murray, Lisa R. Brody (editors), Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World (Infobase Publishing 2009 ISBN 978-1-43811020-2), entry "Homosexuality"
  9. ↑ Michael Gagarin, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, Volume 1, pp. 25ff. ISBN 978-0-19517072-6
  10. ↑ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization (Harvard University Press 2006 ISBN 978-0-67403006-0), pp. 118ff
  11. ↑ David F. Greenberg, The Construction of Homosexuality (University of Chicago Press 1990)
  12. ↑ Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, chapter 2
  13. ↑ Eusebius of Caesarea, Demonstratio Evangelica, book 4, chapter 10
  14. ↑ "The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher". www.earlychristianwritings.com.
  15. ↑ Jan Krans, Joseph Verheyden (editors), Patristic and Text-Critical Studies: The Collected Essays of William L. Petersen (BRILL 2011 ISBN 978-90-0419613-1)., p. 112
  16. ↑ "NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Christian Classics Ethereal Library". www.ccel.org.
  17. ↑ Gregory of Nyssa, The Letters Archived 14 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine., p. 220
  18. ↑ Robert H. Allen, The Classical Origins of Modern Homophobia, (2006) p.187
  19. ↑ "John Chrysostom: Homilies on Romans: Homily IV". orthodoxchurchfathers.com.
  20. ↑ Michael Carden, Sodomy: A history of a Christian Biblical Myth, Routledge, 2004
  21. ↑ Robert H. Allen, The Classical Origins of Modern Homophobia, (2006) p.187
  22. ↑ Derrick S. Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition, London, Longmans, Green, 1955, p185
  23. ↑ Derrick S. Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition, London, Longmans, Green, 1955, cited in Paul Halsall, "Homosexuality and Catholicism Bibliography"
  24. ↑ Canon 71 Archived 5 September 2012 at WebCite
  25. ↑ "Canons of the Council of Elvira - Page 4 of 4". www.earlychurchtexts.com.
  26. ↑ David F. Greenberg, The Construction of Homosexuality (University of Chicago Press 1990 ISBN 978-0-22630628-5), p. 227, with a note that says: "Not too much should be made of the restriction of the prohibition to boys."
  27. 1 2 3 4 Pierre Player (editor), Book of Gomorrah: Eleventh century treatise against clerical homosexual practices, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1982, notes
  28. ↑ "CHURCH FATHERS: Council of Ancyra (A.D. 314)". www.newadvent.org.
  29. ↑ The Chronicle of John Malalas, 18:18
  30. ↑ David F. Greenberg, The Construction of Homosexuality (University of Chicago Press 1990 ISBN 978-0-22630628-5), pp. 250-251
  31. ↑ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization (Harvard University Press 2006 ISBN 978-0-67403006-0), p. 153
  32. ↑ Byrne Fone, A history of homophobia, Picador, 2001
  33. ↑ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilisation.
  34. ↑ Allen J. Frantzen, Before the Closet (University of Chicago Press 2009 ISBN 978-0-22626092-1), p. 128
  35. ↑ Michael D. Jordan, The Invention of Sodomy (University of Chicago Press 1998 ISBN 978-0-22641040-1), p. 1
  36. 1 2 3 Joseph Pérez, The Spanish Inquisition (Profile Books 2006 ISBN 978-1-86197622-2), pp. 91-92
  37. ↑ Anna Clark, Desire: A history of European Sexuality, pp74-75
  38. ↑ Joseph Klaits, Servants of Satan: The Age of Witch Hunts, Indiana University Press, 1985, ISBN 978-0-25335182-1, p. 19
  39. ↑ Pierre J. Payer, Book of Gomorrah (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1982), p. 29
  40. ↑ PETRI DAMIANI Liber gomorrhianus , ad Leonem IX Rom. Pon. in Patrologiae Cursus completus ... accurante J.P., MIGNE, series secunda, tomus CXLV, col. 161; CANOSA, Romano, Storia di una grande paura La sodomia a Firenze e a Venezia nel quattrocento, Feltrinelli, Milano 1991, pp.13–14
  41. 1 2 Rictor Norton, My Dear Boy: Gay love letters through the centuries, Leyland, 1998
  42. ↑ James Neill, The Origins and Role of Same-sex Relations in Human Societies (McFarland 2009 ISBN 978-0-78645247-7), p. 372
  43. 1 2 3 4 James Neill, The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies (McFarland 2008 ISBN 978-0-78645247-7), p. 372
  44. ↑ "Under Pope Alexander". www.ewtn.com.
  45. ↑ Scivias, translated by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop, 1990; p. 279.
  46. ↑ "Internet History Sourcebooks Project". www.fordham.edu.
  47. ↑ William E. Burgwinkle, Sodomy, Masculinity and Law in Medieval Literature, University of Cambridge, 2004, p32-33
  48. 1 2 3 "Bologna, parts of Portugal and other regions embracing Roman civic law prescribed death by fire for convicted sodomites" - Kim M. Phillips, Barry Reay, Sex Before Sexuality: A Premodern History (John Wiley & Sons 2013 ISBN 978-0-74563726-6)
  49. ↑ "SUMMA THEOLOGIAE: The parts of Lust (Secunda Secundae Partis, Q. 154)". www.newadvent.org.
  50. ↑ "Jacques Maritain Center: GC 3.122". www2.nd.edu.
  51. ↑ R. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, p138
  52. ↑ Joseph Pérez, The Spanish Inquisition (Profile Books 2006 ISBN 978-1-86197622-2), pp. 27-28
  53. ↑ Anna Clark, Desire: A history of European Sexuality, p83
  54. ↑ Diarmuid MacCulloch, Reformation:Europe's House Divided, Penguin, 2004, p623
  55. ↑ Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: An historical revision, p152
  56. ↑ E. William Monter, Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily (Cambridge University Press 2003 ISBN 978-0-52152259-5), p. 93
  57. ↑ Charles Ralph Boxer, João de Barros, Portuguese Humanist and Historian of Asia (Concept Publishing Company, 1981), p. 24
  58. ↑ Copley, Hamish (25 July 2007). "Reflections on BNA, part 6: British Law". The Drummer's Revenge. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  59. ↑ Council of Trent: Catechism for Parish Priests (electronic easily searchable one-page edition; for a printed book, see Catechism of the Council of Trent, J. Duffy & Company, 1917, 373)
  60. ↑ "Henry VIII: September 1535, 26-30 - British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
  61. ↑ Gabriel de Varceno, Compendium theologiae moralis" (Marietti, Turin 1873), p. 264
  62. ↑ Maurus Hagel, Demonstratio Religionis Christianae Catholicae (Vienna, 1831), p. 52
  63. ↑ For instance in documents of 1390, 1525, 1591, 1622, 1851
  64. ↑ Theological Studies, vol. 9 (1948), p. 630; Document of the Holy Office in 1962; Periodica 2002
  65. ↑ Hitchens, Christopher (28 February 2013). "Christopher Hitchens on the death of Pope Paul VI". New Statesman.
  66. ↑ Peyrefitte, Roger Mea culpa? Ma fatemi il santo piacere, Tempo, 4 April 1976.
  67. 1 2 Torress, Jose (5 April 1976). "Paul VI Denies He Is Homosexual". Observer Reporter. Associated Press. p. 27.
  68. ↑ Bellegrandi, Franco Nichitaroncalli: Controvita Di Un Papa, Edizioni Internazionale Di Letterature E Scienze (EILES), Rome 2009. English edition: Nikitaroncalli: Counterlife of a Pope
  69. 1 2 3 Posner, Gerald (2015). God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican. Simon and Schuster. p. 174.
  70. ↑ Hoffman, Paul (1984). Oh Vatican! A Slightly Wicked View Of The Holy See. New York: Congdon & Weed. p. 151.
  71. ↑ Bellegrandi, Franco (1994). Nichita Roncalli - Controvita di un Papa. Rome: Editizioni Internazionale di Letterature e Scienze. pp. 85–86, 91–92.
  72. ↑ Dino, Martirano (27 January 2006). "Dossier su un tentato ricatto a Paolo VI". Corriere Della Sera (in Italian).
  73. ↑ John L. Allen, Benedict XVI: A Biography, Continuum, 2005
  74. ↑ Encyclical Veritatis splendor, 47
  75. ↑ John Cornwell, The Pope in Winter, Viking 2004
  76. ↑ Charles E. Curran, Richard A. McCormick (editors), John Paul II and Moral Theology (Paulist Press 1998 ISBN 978-0-80913797-8), p. 178
  77. ↑ "To Bishops of the United States of America (October 5, 1979) - John Paul II". www.vatican.va.
  78. ↑ "Angelus, 9 July 2000 - John Paul II". www.vatican.va.
  79. ↑ Alessandra Stanley, "Pope Declares His 'Bitterness' Over Gay Event", New York Times, 10 July 2000
  80. ↑ News, A. B. C. (6 January 2006). "Pope Rips Gay Parade". ABC News.
  81. ↑ "Pope Laments 'Insult' From Rome's Gay Festival", Chicago Tribune, 10 July 2000
  82. ↑ "Dutch dismiss case against homophobic pope" (IOL News, quoting Agence France Presse)
  83. ↑ George Neumayr, "Diabolizing the Pontiff" in The American Spectator, 23 May 2003
  84. ↑ Matthew D. Staver, Same-Sex Marriage (B&H Publishing Group 2004 ISBN 978-0-80543196-4), p. 64
  85. ↑ John Paul II, Memory and Identity (Hachette UK 2012) ISBN 978-1-78022569-2
  86. ↑ Ailbe O'Reilly, Conjugal Chastity in Pope Wojtyla (Peter Lang 2010 ISBN 978-1-43310611-8), p. 57
  87. ↑ "Pope Benedict XVI denounces cultural shift toward gay marriage in U.S." Washington Post.
  88. ↑ Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Bishops of the United States of America from Region VIII on their ad limina visit
  89. ↑ "Benoît XVI: "Dans la lutte pour la famille, l'Homme est en jeu"". Le Figaro. 21 December 2012.
  90. ↑ "Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI on the occasion of Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia". Clementine Hall, Vatican City. 21 December 2012.
  91. ↑ "Pope Francis 'confirms Vatican gay lobby and corruption'". BBC News. 12 June 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  92. ↑ "Pope Francis: Church Cannot Be 'Obsessed' With Gays, Abortion Ban" in Fox News Latino, 19 September 2013
  93. ↑ Lizzie Davis, "Pope Francis signals openness towards gay priests", in The Guardian, 29 July 2013
  94. ↑ "Pope Francis: Who am I to judge gay people?". BBC News. 29 July 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  95. ↑ McGarry, Patsy (6 August 2013). "Irish gay group praises Pope Francis's airborne comments". Irish Times. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  96. ↑ Squires, Nick (10 March 2014). "Pope says Catholic Church should not dismiss gay marriage". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  97. ↑ "Pope Francis says transsexuals and gay people should be embraced by the Catholic Church".
  98. ↑ "Vatican denies pope is open to recognition of gay civil unions". Reuters. 5 January 2014.
  99. ↑ Vatican: Church should be less judgemental of gays, 26 June 2014
  100. ↑ "Vatican softens tone toward gays and lesbians".
  101. ↑ Sinclair, Harriet (8 April 2016). "Eagerly anticipated document from Pope Francis outlines church's views on gay marriage and abortion".
  102. ↑ "Pope Francis: gay kids' parents shouldn't condemn them", 27 August, in Sydney Morning Herald: https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/pope-francis-gay-kids-parents-shouldn-t-condemn-them-20180827-p4zzyd.html
  103. 1 2 "Statement of Position and Purpose". 14 June 2008.
  104. ↑ 'Mission', Call to Action website http://cta-usa.org/history/
  105. ↑ John J. Allen, The Catholic Church: What everyone needs to know, USA, 2013, p.181
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  107. ↑
  108. ↑
  109. 1 2
  110. ↑ CWNews.com, "Vatican confirms excommunication for US dissident group," at Catholic News Service, "Vatican affirms excommunication of Call to Action members in Lincoln," at http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0606995.html ]
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  112. ↑ "Rainbow Sash Movement at London's Westminister Cathedral" Archived 21 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
  113. ↑
  114. ↑ "Group tries to block gays at communion in St. Paul Cathedral" by Chao Xiong, Star Tribune, May 31, 2004 Archived 20 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  115. ↑ "Pell lashes out after gays refused communion - smh.com.au". www.smh.com.au.
  116. 1 2 John Thavis, "Vatican official says Sash wearers disqualified from Communion" in Catholic News Service, 4 February 2005 at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2005-02-10)
  117. ↑ General Instruction of the Roman Missal Archived July 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine., 321.
  118. ↑ "Notification regarding Sr. Jeannine Gramick, SSND, and Fr. Robert Nugent, SDS". www.vatican.va.
  119. ↑
  120. ↑ "Bishops Lead Assault on Church Teaching", (Catholic World News, 20 March 1997)
  121. ↑ Kevin J. Jones, "Bishop bans 'blasphemous' Rosary for same-sex 'marriage' from cathedral" in National Catholic Register, 24 October 2013
  122. ↑ "Bishop blocks plan for same-sex marriage Rosary" in CathNews New Zealand, 25 October 2013
  123. Rheinische Post: Eltern sollen ihre homosexuellen Kinder nicht verurteilen (german)
  124. Spiegel.de: Vatikan zieht umstrittene Äußerung zu homosexuellen Kindern zurück
  125. Tagesspiegel.de:Vatikan ändert Papst-Zitate zu homosexuellen Neigungen von Kindern
  126. Deutschlandfunk.de: Vatikan relativiert Papst-Äußerungen zu Homosexualität, abgerufen am 28. August 2018
  127. Hansen, S.L. (8 December 2006). "Vatican affirms excommunication of Call to Action members in Lincoln". Catholic News Service. Archived from the original on 12 December 2006. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
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