I am tired of being called homophobic.  I do not have an aversion or fear of homosexuals.  In fact, I have friends who are gay and I would be the first to defend them if they were being bullied or treated unfairly.  However, recently, I keep hearing this accusation and comments like “you Catholics believe homosexuals are gravely disordered”.  First, the Church talks about the act of homosexual sex as being gravely disordered, not the people.  The Church has always separated the dignity of the person from the sinfulness of an act.  The homosexual person is as valued in the eyes of God as a heterosexual person.  The usual rebuttal at that point, though, is usually, “how dare you call an act of love between two consenting adults as gravely disordered,” as if the Church is pointing its fingers only at homosexuals and hence is homophobic.  I then point out that the Church also teaches that the act of masturbation is gravely disordered.   Thus, the same label is applied to heterosexuals (and that would include a huge percentage of the population, both married and unmarried, both devout and non-devout, that have been guilty of this sin).  Does this mean that all heterosexuals who masturbate  are gravely disordered?  No, of  course these people are not; it is the act that is gravely disordered.

Remember, sex between a man and a woman has two functions; it is procreative and it is unitive.  Masturbation is gravely disordered, as is homosexual sex, because if violates natural law.    The two acts cannot result in the conception of a child.

So, the next time someone accuses the Catholic Church of being homophobic, say to them “no, God loves gays.  If you are offended because the Church says that something you do is gravely disordered, be comforted to know that most straight people also do things that are gravely disordered.  The Church is full of sinners who do a myriad of different kinds of sins.  There is always room for more sinners to join, both gay and non-gay”.