Someone asked this question recently.
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I thought this here below was quite a good answer (for Catholics), although I still find this answer insufficient because it is still difficult to explain this to people outside the Catholic Faith unless they first accept the Catholic Faith.
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Catholic Answers to 'Why are Homosexual Acts sinful?' by Ask A Priest @ xt3
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ASK A PRIEST - WHY ARE HOMOSEXUAL ACTS SINFUL?
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My friend asked me why homosexual acts are sinful. I gave answers based on both science and religion, but then my friend said, "If two people love each other, how can that be wrong?" Any ideas on what should be said here?
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Answer:
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Saying that love can justify anything is a very emotionally based ethical system. Love is a good thing, but it also needs to be rightly ordered. If we use this justification that love means it is OK to justify same-sex marriage then by that logic you would have to concede incest, polygamy and pedophilia could also be permitted, so long as the two, or more, people loved each other.
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The then Cardinal Ratzinger, in his homily before the start of the conclave from which he would emerge as Pope, said that "a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth." \
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He went on to say:
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"Truth and love coincide in Christ. To the extent that we draw close to Christ, in our own lives too, truth and love are blended. Love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be like "a clanging cymbal" (I Cor 13: 1)."
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Therefore, love does not exist in a vacuum and it needs to be accompanied and guided by the truth about ourselves, the truth about human sexuality, and the moral truth about how we should act.
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This question was posted in Xt3's 'Ask a Priest' group. You can join the discussion by visiting the original thread - you must be logged into Xt3. Or, to see more Ask a Priest questions, click here.
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Further Reading:
- Hot Topics – Xt3 Podcast: Episode 4 of Xt3's 'Hot Topics' podcast series deals with homosexuality and the teachings of the Catholic Church, narrated by Bernard Toutounji of the Life, Marriage and Family Centre in Sydney.
- Xt3 Library - This link takes you to all the resources in the Xt3 Library that deal with this topic.
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Bible ~ On Love & Truth ~ by Cardinal Ratzinger (Now Pope Benedict XVI)
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The then Cardinal Ratzinger, in his homily before the start of the conclave from which he would emerge as Pope, said that "a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth."
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He went on to say: "Truth and love coincide in Christ. To the extent that we draw close to Christ, in our own lives too, truth and love are blended. Love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be like "a clanging cymbal" (I Cor 13: 1)."
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Therefore, love does not exist in a vacuum and it needs to be accompanied and guided by the truth about ourselves, the truth about human sexuality, and the moral truth about how we should act.
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1 Corinthians 13
.New International Version (NIV)
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13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
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4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes,what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
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13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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Footnotes:
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