The Catholic Church's Teaching about Same-Sex Marriage

Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S., at 196-197.

Bowers v. Hardwick, 193.

Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S., at 16.

See Flynn John “Civil Unions, Family Discord,” December 19, 2006, http://www.catholic.org.

Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, no. 10.

Gn 1: 27.

Gn 2: 18, 24.

Gn 1: 28.

Stott John Homosexual Partnerships? Why Same-Sex Relationships Are Not a Christian Option (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1984), 17, emphasis added.

Gn 19: 1-29; Lv 18: 22; 20: 13.

Rom 1: 25-28.

1 Cor 6: 9-10.

Boswell John Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe (New York: Villard Books, 1994); also see his Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980). Some of the criticisms are summarized by John F. Harvey, O.S.F.S., The Truth about Homosexuality: The Cry of the Faithful (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1996), 241-249.

Harvey The Truth about Homosexuality, 123.

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I, “Schools of Spirituality,” The Catholic New World, January 21, 2007.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics Persona Humana (Vatican City: Vatican Polyglot Press, 1975), no. 8.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics Persona Humana (Vatican City: Vatican Polyglot Press, 1975), no. 8.

Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, no. 51, cited in Persona Humana, no. 5, translation my own.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona Humana, no. 8.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons Homosexualitatis Problema, (October 1, 1986), L'Osservatore Romano (English), November 10, 1986.

May William E. “On the Impossibility of Same-Sex Marriage: A Review of Catholic Teaching,” National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 4 (2004): 303–316.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Homosexualitatis Problema, no. 3.

Homosexualitatis Problema, no. 11.

Homosexualitatis Problema, no. 7.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2357, 2396.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2358.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2359.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Homosexualitatis Problema, no. 10.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Some Considerations Concerning the Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons,” L'Osservatore Romano (English), July 29, 1992, no. 10.

Idem, “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons,” L'Osservatore Romano (English), August 6, 2003.

L'Osservatore Romano, no. 6; the internal quote is from John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, no. 90.

L'Osservatore Romano, no. 8.

L'Osservatore Romano, no. 11.

May, “On the Impossibility of Same-Sex Marriage,” 316.

Mt 19: 6.