Homosexuality And The Catholic Church

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There have been many misconceptions and false statements made by people both inside and outside of the Catholic Church regarding its views on homosexual and transsexual individuals. Because sexual orientation and identity have been such controversial topics in the past few decades, it is important that the Church explicitly states its perspective to not only the members of the Church, but to the public. The Catholic Church does not supports hate crimes against the homosexual and transsexual community as being in accordance with Church teaching. The Catholic Church teaches not to discriminate against individuals with homosexual attractions or gender dysphoria, but does not support pursuits of homosexual relationships or gender reconfiguration …show more content…

Homosexual and transsexual (not transgender) persons are allowed to become priests, brothers, sisters or nuns in the Church if they take and uphold all of the vows of holy orders and uphold the standard mannerisms and beliefs of that vocation (Gallagher 71). Some of these mannerisms and vows include vows of chastity, obedience, poverty, the ability to instruct and practice Catholic teaching, and the ability to handle sensitive situations. Homosexual and transsexual individuals are required to prove their capabilities to relate with both men and women in a mature matter, uphold Catholic teaching, and have their parishioners relate maturely to them (Gallagher 72). As with all religious orders, the Church has to carefully investigate the intentions of all individuals that are discerning to the priesthood even though there has been no evidence suggesting that homosexuality, or any other sexual disposition affects the ability of an individual to live a chaste and celibate life as Catholic priest (Gallagher 72). The Catholic Church may allows some homosexual and transsexual individuals to become priests, but that is not the case for transgendered individuals that have undergone hormonal therapy or gender transformative surgeries. In instances where an individual has undergone a gender-reassignment surgery predating the process of ordination, the Church will not allow the continuation of the ordination. Post-operative Catholic transsexuals cannot be ordained or enter religious life since the mental stability of those individuals is deemed questionable (Norton 1). This hold true for both transformational surgeries whether it’s from male-female or female-male. Homosexuals and transgender

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