Olli Dürr Society The Catholic Church argues with natural law when it comes to homosexuality

The Catholic Church argues with natural law when it comes to homosexuality

27. January 2023 | Olli Dürr | 0 Comment | 18:14

Categories:

Society

Even on the issue of homosexuality, the arguments of the Catholic Church are based on natural law. Biblical statements, on the other hand, are put into perspective and placed in a “modern context”.

Inhalt / Content

1 Natural law serves instead of biblical guidelines
2 The Catholic Catechism has an answer
3 Modern theologians entirely on the Catholic line
4 A new apprenticeship is unlikely
5 A brief outline of Hellenistic ideas

Natural law serves instead of biblical guidelines

The panther is a hallmark of the Church

Pope Francis called homosexuality ‘not a crime, but still a sin’ (Source). Statements like this make you prick up your ears, since sin is unmistakably described in the Bible as breaking the law (s. 1 John 3). But there are significant differences between the Biblical and Catholic definitions of sin. While the Holy Scripture means the transgression of God’s law, the Church, on the other hand, sets up completely different authors.

The Catholic Catechism has an answer

The current back and forth within the various “departments” of the Catholic Church about homosexuality, same-sex couples and their blessings provides a good example of the “Christian” dogma of that institution.
The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church has its own answer to such questions. Homosexual acts are declared to be essentially disorderly and contrary to natural law. The sexual act is a gift of giving life. Same-sex couples cannot produce offspring and this should not be condoned.

Catechism Pos. 2357:
Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

Thus the Catholic Church also proves itself on the subject of homosexuality as that in Rev. 13 described beast from the sea. Babylonian beliefs and rites (lion’s jaws) as well as Medo-Persian church structures (bear’s feet) join the Hellenistic social doctrine.

Modern theologians entirely on the Catholic line

Even on this subject, the statements in the Bible are relativized by “theologians”, as in an interview with the theologian Ilse Müllner from katholisch.de. Ilse Müllner is Professor of Biblical Theology at the Institute for Catholic Theology at the University of Kassel. In their view, the Bible never says anything about homosexuality as we would understand it today.

When asked about the passages in the book of Leviticus and Romans that can be found in the Bible, Müllner replied that they were not about a long-term love relationship between people of the same sex. This must be taken into account before these Scriptures are used as an argument. Leviticus describes a sexual act between two men, but it is not about homosexual relationships. The sex act will be condemned because it is not considered “socially beneficial”.

The verses referred to are:
Leviticus 18:22:
“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”

Romans 1:26-27:
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”

Modern theology, as has become usual, relativizes the biblical statements and the Roman Church has not had much to do with it anyway. In return, the latter supplies its own dogmas to mankind. Even with this line of argument by the theologian, the “Panther in Revelation 13” comes to the fore, because the “common good” based on natural law obviously could not be missing.

A new apprenticeship is unlikely

The official dogmas of the church, which were defined “ex cathedra” at previous councils, cannot be changed at all. When the Bishop of Rome (Pope) sits in his Lateran chair and calls out the new doctrine from the cathedral, he is in the “state of incapacity for error”. It goes without saying that the (self-declared) infallibility cannot and must not lead to any changes at any time. This also includes social teaching based on natural law, initiated by Pope Leo XIII. (encyclical rerum novarum) and also maintained by the current Pope Francis (encyclical Fratelli Tutti).

A brief outline of Hellenistic ideas

In Revelation chapter 13, the second verse describes the appearance of the first beast (out of the sea):
“And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”
According to Daniel 7 and looking back on history, the panther symbolizes ancient Greece or the Greek Empire. To this day, the impact of historical Greece can be clearly heard. The philosophers of this period are well-known names, including Plato and Aristotle, and are still cited as leading figures for many theses. Natural law also has its roots in the Hellenistic thought structures. The Roman Catholic Church makes no secret of the fact that its propagated social teaching is based precisely on this natural law. This also includes other unique characteristics.

Bibelverse aus Schlachter 2000