Political activity of the Catholic Church on LGBT issues

Cardinal Oswald Gracias condemned "all forms of unjust discrimination, harassment or abuse" against LGBT people.[14]

In various countries, members of the Catholic Church have intervened on occasions both to both support efforts to decriminalize homosexuality, and also to ensure it remains an offence under criminal law.

In the 1960s, the Catholic Church supported the call of the Wolfenden report to introduce legislation to decriminalise homosexual acts in England and Wales.[15] In Australia, Cardinal Archbishop Norman Thomas Gilroy supported efforts begun in the 1970s to likewise change the law.[16] In the United States the Catholic National Federation of Priests' Councils declared their opposition to "all civil laws which make consensual homosexual acts between adults a crime."[17]

In New Zealand in the 1980s, although the Church declined to submit a formal response to the parliamentary enquiry on decriminalization, Cardinal Williams did issue a statement opposing homosexual law reform.[18] In the 1970s and 1980s in Belize,[19] and India,[20] the local churches opposed the decriminalization of homosexual acts. These positions were against those of the Vatican.[19] However, in later years, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Mumbai, spoke out against India's anti-sodomy law.[4] Gracias, a President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India and one of the eight members of Pope Francis's Council of Cardinal Advisers, declared it wrong to make gay people criminals, since the Catholic Church "teaches that homosexuals have the same dignity of every human being and condemns all forms of unjust discrimination, harassment or abuse."[14]

Days after a law was signed criminalizing homosexual acts in Nigeria, an editorial in "The Southern Cross" (a newspaper run jointly by the bishops of South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland) criticised the law, calling on the Catholic Church in Africa to stand with the powerless and "sound the alarm at the advance throughout Africa of draconian legislation aimed at criminalizing homosexuals."[21] It noted the "deep-seated sense of homophobia" in Africa and said the Catholic church had too often been "silent, in some cases even quietly complicit" in the face of the new anti-gay measures.[21] At least one bishop argued that the Catholic Church would "defend any person with a homosexual orientation who is being harassed, who is being imprisoned, who is being punished."[22] Reports suggested that the influence of Pope Francis may have led to him modify his former position.[22]

In Uganda, some bishops joined other religious leaders in calling on parliamentarians to make progress in enacting an anti-homosexuality bill.[23][24] In 2015, Bishop Giuseppe Franzelli in the Diocese of Lira, denied that the Catholic Church in Uganda is institutionally behind any push towards anti-gay legislation, and called for "respect and love" for gay people.[25] Rather he blamed fundamentalist US Christian groups as well as "individual Catholics, including some bishops," for encouraging greater criminal sanctions.[25] The Papal Nuncio to Uganda, Archbishop Michael Blume, voiced concern and shock at the bill.[26] In Kenya, Bishop Alfred Rotich welcomed a ruling from the High Court in May 2019 which upheld the laws against gay sex.[27]

Archbishop Tomasi expressed concern that a UN resolution marked the start of a move to "insert gay rights in the global human rights agenda."[28]

In 2008, the Holy See, as an observer at the United Nations, called for an end to unjust discrimination and criminal penalties directed against homosexuals.[12][13] They have opposed, however, a U.N. resolution against violence, discrimination, and criminalization of LGBT people, saying that the wording of the resolution "goes well beyond the above-mentioned and shared intent" of eliminating discrimination and would pressure countries into legalizing gay marriage.[12][13][29]

Speaking on the floor of the General Assembly, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Holy See's representative at the United Nations General Assembly, said: "The Holy See appreciates the attempts made [in the draft declaration] to condemn all forms of violence against homosexual persons as well as urges States to take necessary measures to put an end to all criminal penalties against them," but added that its failure to define the terms "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" would produce "serious uncertainty" and "undermine the ability of States to enter into and enforce new and existing human rights conventions and standards."[12][30] He added in an interview that the proposed declaration would put pressure on countries to enact gay marriage and allow gay couples to adopt children.[31][32][33]

At the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council in 2011, during discussion of a Joint Statement on Ending Violence and Related Human Rights Violations Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, the Holy See's representative, Archbishop Silvano Maria Tomasi, stated: "A state should never punish a person, or deprive a person of the enjoyment of any human right, based just on the person's feelings and thoughts, including sexual thoughts and feelings. But states can, and must, regulate behaviors, including various sexual behaviors. Throughout the world, there is a consensus between societies that certain kinds of sexual behaviors must be forbidden by law. Pedophilia and incest are two examples."[34] He later said of that resolution that recognizing gay rights would cause discrimination against religious leaders and that there was concern lest consequent legislation would lead to "natural marriages and families" being "socially downgraded."[35]

On 28 January 2012, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, gave a speech calling on African nations to repeal laws that place sanctions on homosexual conduct. Speaking to a journalist, African Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, called the speech stupid. He added: 'Poor countries like Africa just accept it because it's imposed upon them through money, through being tied to aid.'" He said that African bishops must react against this move against African culture.[36] Meanwhile, Cardinal Peter Turkson, while recognising that some of the sanctions imposed on homosexuals in Africa are an "exaggeration," stated that the "intensity of the reaction is probably commensurate with tradition." "Just as there's a sense of a call for rights, there's also a call to respect culture, of all kinds of people," he said. "So, if it's being stigmatized, in fairness, it's probably right to find out why it is being stigmatized." He also called for distinction to be made between human rights and moral issues.[37]

In 2018, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference joined the Anglican Diocese of Sydney to publicly call for a religious freedom act to protect religious exemptions to discrimination laws. They said that their teaching "makes it clear that a gay person should be assessed for employment on the same basis as anyone else” and that "staff in a school could reasonably be expected to support the teachings of the particular religion, to not undermine that teaching and to act as role models to their students."[38]

In 1997, Catholic bishops in Poland were successful in opposing the introduction of provisions into the country's constitution that would bar discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.[39] In 2010, the European Union criticized schools and colleges owned by the Catholic Church in Poland for refusing to employ staff that were openly gay.[39] In January 2013, the Catholic Church in Poland publicly thanked members of parliament for voting down a bill that would have allowed same-sex civil partnerships.[39] Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski has called "gender ideology" an "extremely dangerous ideology that leads directly to the death of our civilization".[40] During a sermon on August 1, 2019, Jędraszewski called "LGBT ideology" a "rainbow plague" and compared it to the "Red Plague" of Communism. [41][42]

In 1975, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops taught that LGBT people "should not suffer prejudice against their basic human rights. They have the right to respect, friendship and justice."[6] The following year, Richmond Bishop Walter Sullivan wrote in the Richmond News Leader that “The issue before our community and the [human rights] commission, however, is not the morality of a person’s sexual orientation, but rather a person’s rights and protection under the law. We believe that a person’s sexual orientation, whether it is one we approve or disapprove, is not a proper ground for depriving that person of the basic rights and protections that belong to all human beings."[43]

In 1983, the bishops of the State of Washington stated that "There are those who think that gays and lesbians inevitably impart a homosexual value system to children or that they molest children. This is a prejudice and must be unmasked as such. There is no evidence that exposure to homosexuals, of itself, harms a child.... Accordingly, there is no need to make efforts to screen out all homosexually oriented persons from our educational system."[44]

In 1992, voters in the State of Oregon were asked to vote on a Constitutional amendment that declared homosexuality, pedophilia, sadism or masochism to be "abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse and they are to be discouraged and avoided." The first two religious leaders to oppose the measure were Bishops William Levada and Thomas Connolly.[45] Connolly said the measure was not "fair, just, or appropriate" and that it "could produce very bad results."[45] He said that the state should not "condemn [people] for who they are, and it's wrong to deny them basic human rights."[45] Levada said the amendment was "potentially harmful and discriminatory to homosexual citizens" and prohibited petitions for the amendment to be circulated on church property.[45]

Following regular meetings with members of DignityUSA, Cardinal John O'Connor of New York agreed to support an anti-hate crime bill protecting LGBT people in 1997.[46] Also in that year, in Always our Children, the US bishops taught that "the fundamental human rights of homosexual persons must be defended and that all of us must strive to eliminate any form of injustice, oppression, or violence against them."[46]

In 2013, the United States Conference of Bishops opposed a bill that would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by civilian, nonreligious employers with at least 15 employees. While they expressed their belief that "no one should be an object of scorn, hatred, or violence for any reason, including sexual inclination," the bishops declared: "We have a moral obligation to oppose any law that would be so likely to contribute to legal attempts to redefine marriage."[47]

The U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops intervened in 2017 in the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. It filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the baker who had refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. It was joined by other Catholic organisations including the Colorado Catholic Conference, Catholic Bar Association, Catholic Medical Association, National Association of Catholic Nurses-USA and National Catholic Bioethics Centre.[48] The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the baker.[49]

Courts have upheld the dismissal of church employees for entering into same sex marriages.[50] DignityUSA reports that more than 100 employees of Catholic institutions across the US have lost their posts from 2014 to 2017 for being gay or for marrying a same-sex spouse.[51]

Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp

There has been some dissent expressed in recent years by senior and notable figures in the Catholic Church on whether support should be given for homosexual unions.

The Bishop of Antwerp, Johan Bonny, called in 2016 for the Church to devise a blessing for homosexual couples that would recognize the "exclusiveness and stability" of such unions. German Bishop Franz-Josef Bode has argued that debate should begin on permitting the blessing of same-sex unions in Catholic churches in Germany.[52] German cardinal Reinhard Marx has suggested that blessings in Catholic churches for same-sex unions should be considered on a case-by-case basis.[53]

Cardinal Rainer Woelki, the Archbishop of Berlin, has noted the values of fidelity and reliability found in gay relationships.[54] Over 260 Catholic theologians, particularly from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, signed a memorandum in January and February 2011, called Church 2011. It said that the Church's esteem for marriage and celibacy "does not require the exclusion of people who responsibly live out love, faithfulness, and mutual care in same-sex partnerships or in a remarriage after divorce."[55]