From: creps@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Steve Creps)
Subject: Re:      Homosexuality
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 18:04:37 GMT

In article <1992Oct9.014157.8966@cs.tulane.edu> lang@cs.tulane.edu (Raymond Lang) writes:
>>                  The Church does not condemn a homosexual tendency or
>>sexual preference;
>
>Well, they don't say that the tendency/preference per se is _sinful_;
>but Cardinal Ratzinger has written that homosexual tendencies are the
>"sign of an objective disorder."  (sorry, the quote is 2nd hand...I
>don't know where he wrote that. It was attributed to him in The New
>Republic).
>
>It's hard to tell exactly what he means by "sign of an objective
>disorder," but that sounds to me like a euphemism for "they're all
>sickos."

   It would be uncharitable to say the Prefect of the Sacred
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is calling homosexuals
"sickos," especially since he was using a technical term.

   The quote firsthand comes from the SCDF's "Letter to Bishops of the
Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons".  This
letter represents the Church's official teaching in her ordinary
Magisterium, and uses the terms "intrinsically disordered" and
"objective disorder" to describe homosexual inclination.  The document
referenced by the following excerpt was written by the SDCF, I might
note _before Cardinal Ratzinger was its Prefect_:

	'3. Explicit treatment of the problem was given in this
	Congregation's "Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning
	Sexual Ethics" of December 19, 1975.  That document stressed
	the duty of trying to understand the homosexual condition and
	noted that culpability for homosexual acts should only be
	judged with prudence.  At the same time the Congregation took
	note of the distinction commonly drawn between the homosexual
	condition or tendency and individual homosexual actions.
	These were described as deprived of their essential and
	indispensable finality, as being "intrinsically disordered",
	and able in no case to be approved of (cf. no. 8, 4).

	'In the discussion which followed the publication of the
	Declaration, however, an overly benign interpretation was
	given to the homosexual condition itself, some going so far as
	to call it neutral, or even good.  Although the particular
	inclination of the homosexual person is not sin, it is a more
	or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral
	evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an
	objective disorder.

	'Therefore special concern and pastoral attention should be
	directed toward those who have this condition, lest they be
	led to believe that the living out of this orientation in
	homosexual activity is a morally acceptable option.  It is
	not.'

   The letter is signed thus:

	_During an audience granted to the undersigned Prefect, His
	Holiness, Pope John Paul II, approved this Letter, adopted in
	an ordinary session of the Congregation for the doctrine of
	the Faith, and ordered it to be published_.

	Given at Rome, October 1, 1986.

	                        Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
	                                        _Prefect_

	                                   Alberto Bovone
	      _Titular Archbishop of Caesarea in Numidia_
	                                      _Secretary_


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Steve Creps, Indiana University
creps@silver.ucs.indiana.edu