Catholic homophobia

Abstract

Understanding homophobia as a discursively constituted antipathy, this article argues that the culture of the Catholic Church – as constituted through the Roman magisterium – can be understood as fundamentally homophobic, and in its teaching not just on homosexuality, but also on contraception and priestly celibacy. Moreover, in this regard, the article argues for a hermeneutic of continuity from the pontificate of John Paul II to that of Pope Francis – the latter’s ambivalence repeating the ‘scrambling’ of speech that is typical of homophobic discourse.