We need to remind ourselves of arguments against the case of homosexual practices based on reason and faith.   It should be emphatically stated that active homosexual practices and Christianity (and many other major religions) are strictly incompatible. Choosing one automatically reject the other, it is a radical either-or and a compromise is not possible. The notion of “Christian homosexual practices” makes as much sense as a wooden iron or a square circle.

 

1. Common sense tells us that homosexual practices are unacceptable. With insistence, however, one can even defend the absurdity of ending one’s life. In hearing another absurdity, we should analyze this proposition by considering the origin and nature of its erroneous reasoning.   One can usually discover negative circumstances in the backdrop of this condition: childhood traumas, consumerist mentality of the society, resentments, illusions, mechanisms of rationalization and self-deceit. This principle usually holds, “Apology for one type of deviation is normally the result of another deviation.”

 

Reason informs us of the meaning and value of human sexuality. Our likeness to God manifests itself in such a powerful dynamism that it defines each of us profoundly. It brings us into a community of profound love that reflects the love of the Persons of the Trinity. This love likewise generates the fruit of supreme good and happiness in the procreation of a child. In God’s plan, marriage is an image of His love and a foretaste of heaven.

 

Man, however, can destroy even the most beautiful thing. Gift demands discipline. Sexuality is similar to another basic need such as food. Both sex and food are important as they serve life. But if a person is not moderate in food intake, his life suffers both the quality and appearance. He or she may put on kilograms of fat, which literally and metaphorically speaking, force him down to the earth, and bring illnesses, suffering and precocious death. In this way, food which is a source of life may become a source of death. The same analogy can be applied to human sexuality.

 

2. There are few things mentioned in the Bible that is condemned as unequivocally as homosexuality. In Genesis, we read: How great is the outcry over Sodom and Gomorrah! How grave their sin must be! (Gen 18:20). As for those sins, we learn that only one is clearly grave and appalling to God – homosexuality. When two strangers became Lot’s guests, old and young inhabitants of Sodom approached his house and said to him, “Bring them out to us so that we may have intercourse with them.”(Gen 19:5). His reluctance was answered with threats and violence. The chalice of God’s wrath was overfilled and on the next day, Sodom and Gomorrah became annihilated. The only persons saved were the righteous Lot and his family members. From this event the expression – Sodom and Gomorrah was coined to mean extreme moral blindness and licentiousness. Whichever literary genre this passage belongs, its meaning is clear.

 

St. Paul says that those who practices homosexuality, like other sinners who refuse to convert, risk perdition: You know perfectly well that people who do wrong will not inherit the kingdom of God: people of immoral lives, idolaters, adulterers, catamites, sodomites (...) will never inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor 6:9n). For St Paul, homosexuality is exactly one of the basic signs of the greatness of a person’s ruin, self-contradiction, and his stray from God (Rom 1:18-32). St Paul also tells of their propaganda which openly scorn God: They know what God’s verdict is: that those who behave like this deserve to die – and yet they do it; and what is worse, they encourage others to do the same (ibid., 1:32). We find similar words in his Letter to Timothy 1:3-11 and Leviticus 18:19-23. Such determined trampling of God’s plan in denying the natural complementariness of man and woman deeply hurts and destroys man and will bring disastrous results upon him in due course.

 

The Church has always taught irrevocably this condemnation of homosexual practices. John Paul II repeated it many times himself and we find this teaching in various official Vatican documents. We find it in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nos 2357-2359, 2396. A distinction is made here: homosexual tendency itself is not a sin but a trial. The person with this tendency is not to be blamed. Like any temptations which we encounter, they should be resisted.   Sin occurs when one surrenders to this temptation or tendency. We must offer our help to persons with homosexual tendencies, supporting them in their struggle with respect, compassion and delicacy. The most renowned contemporary saint, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “We must live according to the plan of our creation: homosexuality is not natural.” Do the words of these moral authorities still have meaning for us? Whose words do we wish to listen? To whom would we say “yes”, and to whom would we say “no”?

 

3. “Arguments” in favour of homosexuality are not convincing. For the sake of brevity, I will proceed to demonstrate this by means of collective argument per absurdum and advocatus diaboli. If one accepts the “arguments” which (seemingly) support homosexuality, must one not also accept other deviations of sexual practices? Could any of these behaviours possibly enjoy the same rights as marriage? If not, which ones would not qualify? Why not? Who among the “sexual deviant minorities” should be given the “right of public space” to march and parade with their partners? According to the advocates of homosexual rights, does any sexual deviation other than paedophilia, exists? If so, how is this defined and what does it refer to?

 

Homosexuals are not short of rights today. They are not persecuted. Their interests are fully secured by existent regulations. Nevertheless, they must not be granted services that only married couples enjoy because of the huge burden and costs of bringing up children. Gays and lesbians already have their clubs, organizations, magazines, influences and lobbies. But family, marriage, children and youth are threatened by them. What homosexual persons urgently need are not legal privileges, but spiritual liberation and good therapists.

 

4. Among the arguments for homosexuality, it has often been reported (and quite truthfully) that some homosexual couples do better than married couples. But this argument is faulty. The big picture is more important than singular cases. It is well known that on average homosexual relationships are less stable since they are poor emotionally, morally and religiously. Homosexuals tend to change their partners more frequently and easily fall into seductions and paedophilia. They also suffer a higher incidence of venereal diseases. They have contributed disproportionately to the outbreak of AIDS. There is clearly a higher rate of law violation and sex crimes within the group. Regardless of the success or failure of their partnerships, we cannot expect children from them; and without children there is no future. The propaganda which says that their relationships are as good as those of married couples reminds me of the propaganda that kept telling us for so many years that Socialism is better than Capitalism and that people in the Soviet Union had a higher standard of life than those in the United States. Likewise, we should resist this propaganda.

 

5. The genesis of this phenomenon is well known. Scientists have not managed to find a gene causing homosexuality. But even if it existed, it would not be justify homosexuality because not all genes are necessarily good. Seduction, prostitution or foolish “experiments” at a young age are the causes of homosexuality. Pathological relations of children with their parents resulting in a deep homosexual hurt are a major cause. In males, the most frequent cause is the sensation of rejection by a cold, indifferent or even oppressive father.   As a result, he seeks a “father” in other men. What can also be a source of homosexual tendency is the parents’ rejection of the child’s gender. Various factors may considerably extenuate the circumstances. They may, to a great extent or even completely, excuse the homosexual tendency. But they do not excuse the behaviour since the person remains free and is responsible for his choices in spite of negative circumstances. What is determined, and what is free is known only to the Supreme One. We shall discover this only at the Last Judgement. This is why we should never judge a person’s merit or guilt when we simply do not know his past.   We must always say (at least to warn young people) that active homosexual behaviour is evil, sinful or an illness. But we must never say that the person with homosexual tendency alone is at fault. Our most important task here on earth is to strive, first of all, to be absolutely faithful to our conscience, and, secondly, absolutely open to its correction. This is the only thing which depends on us and we shall be judged regarding this.     

 

Homosexuality can also be explained from a social perspective – it is just one of many diseases ailing us. As the body is threatened by hundreds of diseases, so too is the spirit. Bodily disease is often an image and consequence of a spiritual weakness or disease. Smoking or continuous overeating is harmful. Despite this, it is alarmingly to note that 70 percent of adults smoke, and 80 percent are overweight. Doctors warn that close to 50 percent of our diseases (and 50 percent of operations, hospital treatments, pain and costs...) result from our immoderation and bad habits, by which we kill ourselves gradually. Is it not surprising that if we are so weak in observing basic principles of sound living (although health is very important to us), we likewise do not observe basic principles of sound sexuality? Worldwide, there are (more or less) 0.5 percent of paedophiles, 1 percent of schizophrenics, 2 percent of gays and 5 percent of alcoholics. We should do everything possible to help them. However, in order to make them feel better, should we declare as normal their perception of the world and their deviant behaviours? Should the rest of us be then considered abnormal?

 

6. The aggressive propaganda of homosexuality should be seen in the wider context of general decadence, as a consequence of the negative processes of de-Christianization, secularization and spread of atheism in a consumerist society. Amidst wealth and proliferation of goods, people often cannot cope with this superabundance (compare this, for example, with the decadence of Rome or the late Byzantine Empire). There has never been such abundance of goods and well-being as today. We are too often deceived by the illusion that life means unlimited consumption.

 

In the same way, sexuality (actually, the whole person) becomes degraded to the level of goods within a hand’s reach. Pornographic magazines can be bought at every newsstand, and internet is overflowing with it. Increasingly, pornography is systematically viewed by primary school children, whose mental life may become forever destroyed. One can easily buy a “body” in the ever dense network of social agencies. A considerable number of women (millions on our continent) are forced into this trade of sexual slavery. As a result, souteneurs and customers commit numerous crimes on these women every day. This is happening a few streets down from us, in each European city, in the 21^st century. Who will speak up for this “minority”? Likewise, who will stand up for the boys who are made to prostitute for the gays?   Children and youth are being corrupted so that others may profit from this tragedy. In Poland, successive generations are growing up on magazines like Popcorn and Bravo Girls, which lead children to believe that they are abnormal if at the age of 15 they do not have a sex life. Within this atmosphere, sex should always be available whereas patient self-control cannot be mentioned. If someone cannot live as a heterosexual, he can, of course, live like a gay person. Everybody has his “holy” right for “love”, whatever this means and whenever, doesn’t he?

 

This is an empirical confirmation of the basic Christian truth about the immense spiritual misery of man, a theme which thinkers such as Pascal, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Weil have dealt with.

 

7. The Church teaches that our earthly existence is not meant to experience the utmost pleasure but to do the greatest good, which happens to be the source of maximal happiness (and thus pleasure). Eros is an important and beautiful form of love, but it is not the only and most important one. To suffer, fight and even die defending a loved one could be a greater form of love. Sex is not “always” there.   Life can be very difficult, especially when one has to mortally defend himself and others. A wife, a husband, a priest can at times be strongly tempted, for instance to commit adultery. Greater still are the temptations of paedophiles! But all those who yield to these temptations bring about their (spiritual) ruin.   However, if they can overcome these temptations, it can bring about the joy of a clear conscience and of the closeness of the Lord. The same applies to homosexual persons. Nobody is ever exempt from the fundamental laws of existence and ethics. How good and beautiful is the Supreme One, who has created such wonderful and beautiful beings as woman and man, as well as the beauty of marital and family love. How worthwhile it is to trust in him. He provides us his gifts together with principles of enjoyment. At times, he may ask us give these up for a while, or forever in order to fulfil other tasks or for a more intimate relationship with him here on earth. This has led some, like Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa, to achieve the rare summit of humanity—sanctity.

 

8. Homosexual tendency is only one feature of someone’s personality. Many other very positive features may also be present. Each person is made up of a unique combination of light and darkness, greatness and misery, strength and weakness, wisdom and foolishness, sanctity and sin – indeed there is an inconceivable number of combinations! Persons with homosexual tendencies may be quite accomplished in certain areas such as artistic expressions. Perhaps they often focus on the aesthetic realm precisely because they realize what they lack in the ethical realm. In spite of everything, they conserve the infinite dignity pertaining to every person and every child of God. This is why they should be respected and tolerated. However, this does not change our evaluation of their moral behaviours. If not just 5 but 100 percent of the population were alcoholics, this would not diminish the catastrophic nature of alcoholism. It would only make the situation worse because of the magnitude of its negative effects. The elimination of sinful situation does not mean the elimination of the sinner. We have to tolerate in ourselves and others many obviously evil situations. However, this does not allow us to disseminate evil. We may tolerate evil when we are unable to totally eliminate it, but we should not spread it.

 

9. It is surprising that some people other than those with homosexual orientation support that lifestyle. Has not the majority been wrong on more than one occasion, denying at times God and his Church?   At the time of the Soviet regimes, did not many things pass with a unanimous vote at our Parliament, sometimes even in the name of new “scientific” theories? Not all that is called science is really science, and not every “new” phenomenon in the society is necessarily advancement.   Many mutated viruses of old diseases happen to be “new” and “distinct”, and yet how dangerous they can be. And how quickly they can multiply! Did the Church not appear to be ultimately conquered and doomed to annihilation by anti-Christian forces such as totalitarianism?

 

10. How should we act when our friends are deaf to all arguments and follow the path that leads to nowhere and even to death?

 

Those who stray will need understanding, love and mercy, but, above all help. They may be suffering a great deal from their acts. They may be having a taste of hell here on the earth. It is amazing to hear the testimony of homosexual persons who managed to break away from this vicious circle. Like all of us, they keep searching in their desperation only for one thing – infinite Love. This search may still convert and save them. Many of them still struggle against themselves and against the environment they are immersed in. Many are successful in overcoming their situation and can be still saved. The Supreme One wants everyone to be saved, but even he cannot force this on us against our own will.

 

In all, we should employ all the energy of our human spirit to sustain and expand our fascination with life. The more beautiful is our life, the more convincing we will be and the more we will be able to help others.