On Catholicism and the LGBTQ Community: A Modest Proposal
Heterosexual Catholics should identify with gay and lesbian Catholics
What will the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV bring? Stay tuned, folks. At the moment, however, people seem to be projecting their greatest hopes and fears.
Pope Francis’ stance toward gay, lesbian, and transgender Catholics stirred controversy on the right for going too far, and on the left for not going far enough. Catholics and non-Catholics alike wonder what Pope Leo XIV is going to do.
But what if we’re looking at this from the wrong angle? Catholic sexual morality is strict and uncompromising. No sex outside of a sacramental marriage. No remarriage after divorce. No birth control. No abortion. No masturbation. No gay sex. No pornography (not even swimsuit pics). Don’t even look at another person with lust.
It can feel like an impossible standard. So, why not be realistic? But if we are going to compromise perfect goodness with sexuality, then there’s nothing to stop us from compromising any moral standard. Everyone tells lies, so why not be realistic?
It’s been said that either the world can convert the Church to its beliefs, or the Church can convert the world. The argument that sexual orientation is not chosen and is unchangeable, and thus the Church should update its perspective to affirm that homosexuality is “differently ordered,” is an argument for converting the Church to liberal secularism.
Yet, treating gays and lesbians like social pariahs while showing compassion to heterosexuals struggling with the Church’s strict sexual standards was always a failure to love our neighbors as ourselves. However, it was an overcorrection for the Synod on Synodality not to include gay and lesbian Catholics who uphold traditional Catholic teaching while including some who advocate changing Church teaching.