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Should I Leave the Church Because of my Homosexuality?

Question:

I am a homosexual. I am also a Catholic who loves my religion but feels that it is against me. Should I abandon my Catholic beliefs, since I will never be accepted within the Church?

Answer:

First of all, “homosexual” is not your identity. You are a Catholic who has same-sex attractions, and your Church is not “against” you.

Like every other human being, you have been blessed with existence not because you deserve it but because God in his generosity has given it to you. It is such a basic gift that most of us ordinarily don’t even think of it as such. If God wanted to take it back, he would not have to do anything; he would have to stop doing something. It’s a gift that he keeps giving, without which we would simply cease to exist. There is no way that we could ever pay him for this.

So from the start, we owe. Besides life itself, we all have many other gifts. Some of us can paint portraits or play the piano. None of us has every gift. Some of the greatest gifts God gives us are the individual crosses that he places in our lives that offer us the opportunity to grow in our love for him.

Dear friend, you have a special place in the Church. The world does not understand this. It speaks as if Good Friday never happened. But by the gift of faith that you do have, you know that almighty God chose to favor you with the gift of himself in a unique way. Selfless love is not easy for us, but he is so worth it! I suggest that you check out Courage (www.couragerc.net) and this web site on reparative therapy (www.narth.com) should this cross of yours be for only a temporary period of time.

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