While doing some research for a paper, I discovered something disturbing. The Catholic Church views homosexuality as a blight in society. I already knew the Church’s stance on homosexuality: being homosexual is not wrong, only acting on those impulses is wrong.
That’s only a small portion of the plainly stated beliefs on the matter. The one thing that was most disturbing was the belief that homosexuals are “sexual deviants” and incapable of raising children. In fact, by having children in their custody, homosexuals are doing “violence” to them.
Allowing homosexual couples to adopt prevents the child from reaching a full human development in a supportive environment; they lack the necessary presence of a father and mother. All of these statements are from “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons,” issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. CDF, which issued this statement, was led by the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and approved by Pope John Paul II.
I’m sorry, but how is this idea of parenting acceptable in today’s society? This says any child who does not both have a father and mother is harmed. Typically, this situation is not by choice. Most parents do not choose to die and leave a single parent to raise the child.
Personally, I know my mother didn’t choose to put my father in that situation. I have not been harmed by only having one parent, and I’m quite sure that many others have dealt with the same loss and led normal, healthy lives. Why does the Church feel it has the right to judge the condition of any child’s life without monitoring it closely?
As long as a child has a loving and supportive environment, it should not matter what it consists of. Two homosexual persons could be better parents than two heterosexual persons could. One heterosexual or homosexual person could be better than two parents of either orientation.
It all depends on circumstances. It seems only logical to think a child with homosexual parents could live a normal life. Homosexuals are capable of providing a stable and supportive home. Surely, there would be incidents of unhappy or dysfunctional households consisting of homosexual parents and children. Unhappy and dysfunctional households can occur in any situation, whether heterosexual or homosexual.
How is discrediting a loving and affectionate couple justified when there is no evidence of this “violence” in repeated examples of the situation?
We are not supposed to judge others based on their lifestyles. What happened to love your neighbor as yourself? Making such statements on the nature of homosexual parents is clearly judging them based on their lifestyle. CDF stated that no judgments or discrimination of homosexuals should be allowed in “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.”
According to the Church, these parents cannot provide the stable and supportive environment necessary for full human development. What is the logic behind this argument? Clearly, homosexuals aren’t equal to heterosexuals when following this logic. I can’t understand how a loving, supportive couple couldn’t provide children a good home. It is immoral to take away part of life based on sexual orientation.
Tara Templeton is a communications freshman from Madison, Tenn.
