It may surprise you that most major media outlets are totally misrepresenting the Catholic Church’s teachings on sexuality and that this misrepresentation happens to maximize hate clicks.
Here’s CNN misrepresenting a new statement from the Vatican.
A Vatican statement says the Catholic Church won’t bless same-sex unions, calling homosexuality a “sin” and a “choice.” Pope Francis, who has frequently been praised for his welcoming tone towards LGBTQ people, approved the note. https://t.co/RCTbHIQ8o1
— CNN (@CNN) March 15, 2021
“The Vatican calls being gay a ‘choice,’” Forbes claimed.
Catholic teaching, and the recent Vatican statement, do not characterize “being gay” or “homosexuality” as a “choice” or a “sin.” The distinction here, which is often ignored, is between tendencies, orientations, and desires on one hand and actions on the other.
It is never a sin to desire something or to be tempted. By “being gay” or “homosexuality,” we typically mean to describe an orientation, a tendency, an attraction, or a desire. No sexual orientation is a sin in Catholic teaching, precisely because one’s proclivities and temptations are not “choices.”
All sin must be knowingly chosen. So, a man’s attraction to men is not sinful. Nor is finding another woman besides your wife attractive, nor is a desire to have premarital sex with your girlfriend. On the other hand, if you act on such desires or cultivate them, you are committing a sin.
According to Catholic teaching, sex is proper within a lifelong marriage between a man and a woman and is naturally oriented toward family formation. Other conceptions of sex or marriage, including a heterosexual marriage where husband or wife refuses to have children, are not marriages the church can bless.
So look at the letter. The letter states that church teaching prohibits “any form of blessing that tends to acknowledge [same sex] unions as” in keeping with God’s plan.
The “choice” here is the choice to marry someone of the same sex and to have sexual relations with that person. A more accurate Forbes headline would be “The Vatican calls gay marriage ‘a choice.'” One would hope.
