Homosexuality and Roman Catholicism - Dissent From Official Church Position

Dissent From Official Church Position

A number of Catholics and Catholic groups oppose the position of the Church and seek to change it. Over 260 Catholic theologians, particularly from Germany, Switzerland and Austria signed in January/February 2011 a memorandum Church 2011. They want more ecclesiastical respect for gay couples, who live in civil unions.

A 2011 report based on telephone surveys of American Catholics conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 43% support same-sex marriage, 31% support civil unions, and 22% oppose any legal recognition of a same-sex relationship. 56% believe that sexual relations between two people of the same sex are not sinful. 73% favor anti-discrimination laws, 63% support the right of gay people to serve openly in the military, and 60% favor allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. A 2012 Pew Forum survey which asked American Catholic respondents if they supported or opposed same-sex marriage found that 52% supported it and 37% opposed it. Catholic support of gay rights is thus higher than that of other Christian groups and of the general population.

A notable example of a theologian who has been critical of the Church's proclamations regarding homosexuality is Professor Charles Curran. Curran was removed from the faculty at the Catholic University of America following his contention that homosexual acts in the context of a committed relationship were good for homosexual people.

Roman Catholic priest Dr. James Alison argues that the teaching of (then) Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger in On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons regarding persons with homosexual inclinations is incompatible with the Gospel, and states that "it cannot in fact be the teaching of the Church." In a Question of Truth, the Dominican priest Gareth Moore states that: "... there are no good arguments, from either Scripture or natural law, against what have come to be known as homosexual relationships. The arguments put forward to show that such relationships are immoral are bad."

There have also been practical and ministerial disagreements within the clergy and hierarchy of the Church. Two notable examples of ordained Catholics who have attracted controversy because of their actions and ministry to homosexuals are Fr. Robert Nugent and Dr. Jeannine Grammick, who established New Ways Ministry, and were both disciplined by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith because of their dissent from magisterial Church teaching regarding this issue. Similarly, the American Bishops Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit and Matthew Clark of Rochester, New York were criticized for their association with New Ways Ministry, and their distortion of the theological concept of the Primacy of Conscience as an alternative to the actual teaching of the Church. Furthermore, the insistence of Bishop Jacques Gaillot to preach a message about homosexuality contrary to that of the official stance of the Church is largely considered to be one of the factors that led to him being removed from his See.