Chaste, same sex partnership

[Aragon]

If two homosexual men or two homosexual women commit to loving each other and sharing their lives together, but are both Christian and do not engage in sexual activity together and sleep in separate bedrooms, are they committing a sin? Does the Church teach that this arrangement is sinful if the two are not engaging in sexual acts or presenting their relationship as analogous to marriage?

[Luigi]

51 minutes ago, Aragon said:

If two homosexual men or two homosexual women commit to loving each other and sharing their lives together, but are both Christian and do not engage in sexual activity together and sleep in separate bedrooms, are they committing a sin? Does the Church teach that this arrangement is sinful if the two are not engaging in sexual acts or presenting their relationship as analogous to marriage?

There is no sin involved in that situation, assuming they really can live that way. The hard part would be staying in separate bedrooms and not crossing the hall. So there might be a fair amount of temptation involved.

But if they can live as brothers, it would be no different than two brothers living together, and there's nothing sinful in that.

[CatherineM]

I've known several same sex couples who tried, and two were successful. Both were female couples. One eventually separated with one of the partners entering a normal marriage and the other were a couple that both were abuse survivors and had never been sexual with each other. I've also known many traditional couples who live this way. They were older couples or disabled couples living together for companionship and financial reasons. 

You'd have to find someone as dedicated to staying chaste as you are. It would be like an alcoholic trying to stay sober while working as a bartender. We should avoid the near occasion of sin, but I certainly understand wanting to try. 

[beatitude]

You might be interested in reading this blog. It's by a couple who are living as you describe. One is Catholic. I am not sure about the other, but at one point she was Eastern Orthodox.

One of the beautiful things about celibacy for me is how it has enabled me to experience friendship more deeply and vividly: it's as if I now see a whole spectrum of colours whereas before I only saw a handful. However, part of this discovery did come from solitude, and learning how to be by myself. I've known that my vocation involved consecrated life since I was eight or nine, before I even knew the language for it, but at one point in my early twenties I fell in love (and into fear - I was afraid of loneliness) and ended up in a relationship. The niggling knowledge that I was in the wrong place persisted throughout that relationship, and perhaps because I was in the wrong place, I ended up hurt. Limping out of that relationship gave me peace, but it was terrifying at the same time, and if I had gone looking for a very close spiritual companion at that time I think it would just have been an escape from what God was asking me and what I needed to face. So I would say that anyone in such a relationship needs a deep prayer life and strong self-awareness first of all, flowing from time spent alone with God.