\nThe guidelines begin with a statement of general principles, including the fundamental dignity of each person as created by God. The document says the Church teaches that persons with a homosexual inclination \u201cmust be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,\u201d and it condemns all forms of violence, scorn, and hatred, whether subtle or overt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who would minister in the name of the Church must in no way contribute to such injustice,\u201d the guidelines state. \u201cThey should prayerfully examine their own hearts in order to discern any thoughts or feelings that might stand in need of purification. Those who minister are also called to their own ongoing conversion. In fact, the work of spreading the Good News involves an ever-increasing love for those to whom one is ministering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stating that the phenomenon of homosexuality poses challenges that can only be met with the help of a clear understanding of the place of sexuality within God\u2019s plan for humanity, the document says: \u201cBy its very nature, human sexuality finds its proper fulfillment in the marital bond. Any sexual act that takes place outside the indissoluble and lifelong bond of marriage does not fulfill the proper ends of human sexuality. It is not directed toward the expression of marital love with an openness to new life. It is disordered in that it is not in accord with this twofold end and is thus morally wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of both Original Sin and personal sin, moral disorder is all too common in our world today, among both heterosexual and homosexual persons,\u201d the document says.<\/p>\n
The guidelines state that while the Church teaches that homosexual acts are immoral, there is a distinction between engaging in homosexual acts and having a homosexual orientation. \u201cWhile the former is always sinful, the latter is not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is crucially important to understand that saying a person has a particular inclination that is disordered is not to say that the person as a whole is disordered. Nor does it mean that one has been rejected by God or the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given that a considerable number of people experience same-sex attraction as an inclination they did not choose raises the question of whether or not this situation can be changed with the help of some kind of clinical intervention, or therapy, the guidelines state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is currently no scientific consensus on the cause of the homosexual inclination,\u201d the document asserts \u201cThere is no consensus on therapy. Some have found therapy helpful. There is, however, no moral obligation to attempt it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Specific guidelines in the document address issues which arise in the areas of church participation, catechesis, sacraments and worship, and pastoral support. Key points include:<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n
More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your November bishop’s meeting. We’ll post these separately, for the sake of discussion. First, they will be discussing norms for ministry to homosexual persons: The guidelines begin with a statement of general principles, including the fundamental dignity of each person as created by God. The document says the Church teaches that persons with a homosexual…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}