Angry, Hurt, Catholic.

[Guest angry hurt catholic]

I love Christ. :wub:

I love Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. I love Christ in all the Sacraments. I love Christ in the Mass.

I am finding my Catholicism however to be almost impossible to practice, because of one teaching. I have never not even for a half a second at any point in my life believed this teaching. I didn't believe it when I was obedient to it.

I don't believe it in the place where I believe that Christ in the Eucharist, I don't believe it in the place where I believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary is my Mother.

I think the Church's teaching on homosexuality is patronising, dehumannising, and just plain bad theology from saying that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of homosexuality when the Bible itsself says in Ezekiel 16:49-50 that it was destroyed for inhospitality, to turning Paul's condemnation of IDOLATRY in Romans into a condemnation of homosexuality.

It actually makes me physically ill to think that I belong to an institution that considers my sexual orientation to be intrinsically disordered. It sickens me that when the molestation scandal started the response of the hierarchy was to start pointing at gay priests rather than intoning mea culpas for THEIR cover-up.

I want to know what I am supposed to do here. I think the Church is wrong, damnably wrong even, she's killing the souls of gays and lesbians by not opening her arms to them, by refusing to let them live the sacramental life, by refusing to let them know and love Jesus Christ.

These views make me objectively a heretic, but I can't foresee a moment when I will look at what I think crawled straight out of the pit of Hell and call it divinely inspired. And I can't imagine leaving the Church, it doesn't work, I've tried, I can't miss Mass, I can't not be in the place where I know my Lord is.

What am I supposed to do if after looking at a teaching from every angle I can and trying to recognize God in it I can't?

PRAY FOR ME.

[Pontifex]

I will certainly pray for you. It sounds like you are wrestling with a lot and those crosses are not for you to bear alone, try to give them to Jesus.

If you have a love for the Eucharist and a devotion to Our Blessed Mother than you have everything you need to gain clarity and to obtain peace. Do not leave the Church that can give you what you need to sustain your life.

The homosexual issue is a tough one. It is hard to communicate the sinfulness of an action, such as homosexual sex, without demonizing the person. Sometimes when the one is stood against the person feels belittled or shamed. I hope that from this priest you can get a sense of the Church's teaching. Sex outside of the bond of the Sacrament of Marriage is a sin, whether you are homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, etc. It is all sin. Homosexual sins are no graver than heterosexual sins. Sins against chastity are all grave, and that is what the Church teaches.

Homosexual sexual activity is not accepted, because one of the ends of Sexual Union is procreation. The other is Unity of the spouses. Because we live in a broken world, there are injustices, and crosses that we must bare. For some it is addictions, for some it is mental disorders, for others health problems, and for others struggles with sexual orientation.

Regardless, you are a beloved Child of God. No matter what your struggle may be, no matter what doubts you have, you remain His. I will pray for you, but please do not divorce yourself from the Church that can nourish you.

God bless,

Fr. Pontifex