7. The Church,
obedient to the Lord who founded her and gave to her the sacramental life,
celebrates the divine plan of the loving and live-giving union of men and women
in the sacrament of marriage. It is only in the marital relationship that the
use of the sexual faculty can be morally good. A person engaging in homosexual
behaviour therefore acts immorally.
To chose
someone of the same sex for one's sexual activity is to annul the rich
symbolism and meaning, not to mention the goals, of the Creator's sexual
design. Homosexual activity is not a complementary union, able to transmit
life; and so it thwarts the call to a life of that form of self-giving which
the Gospel says is the essence of Christian living. This does not mean that
homosexual persons are not often generous and giving of themselves; but when
they engage in homosexual activity they confirm within themselves a disordered
sexual inclination which is essentially self-indulgent.
As in
every moral disorder, homosexual activity prevents one's own fulfillment and
happiness by acting contrary to the creative wisdom of God. The Church, in
rejecting erroneous opinions regarding homosexuality, does not limit but rather
defends personal freedom and dignity realistically and authentically
understood.
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