Synod Study Group Report Sidesteps Catholic Teaching on Homosexuality

A new Synod study group report on homosexuality cites Church teaching while quietly working around it

Praised by Father James Martin and roundly condemned by Bishop Joseph Strickland, the latest text from the Synod on Synodality’s study groups platforms clear rejection of Catholic teaching on homosexuality, while at the same time promoting that same teaching.

The Catholic Church’s moral teaching regarding homosexuality is very clear: “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law,” the catechism notes, adding that such activity can never be approved, and that “[h]omosexual persons are called to chastity.”

Reading through the latest publication from the Synod’s spin-off study group, this clear teaching is not forthcoming. Study Group 9, looking at “Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of emerging doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues,” included testimonies from openly homosexual individuals in its report.

The report has no weight in itself, and is purely consultative. It was compiled by a 7-member group, including prominent, liberal leaning Synod theologians Mgr. Piero Coda and Fr. Maurizio Chiodi.

Both of the testimonies it cites document people living in active homosexual relationships and in contradiction of Catholic teaching, while one also attacks the Catholic charity “Courage” which assists same-sex attracted people in a manner in line with Church teaching.

One of the most controversial passages comes in the group report’s summary of a Portuguese homosexual man’s testimony. The study group writes that the man’s testimony “bears witness to the discovery that sin, at its root, does not consist in the (same-sex) couple relationship, but in a lack of faith in a God who desires our fulfilment.”

“This new awareness,” the report summarizes, “becomes the starting point for moving beyond a conception of the Christian community merely as a place of welcome and compassion, to arriving at the experience of the Christian community as a place where we are all loved.”

Such phraseology is employed by the study group not as its own thought per se, but as the summary of the testimony it received from a homosexual individual. However, the report is notably reticent in giving similar weight and prominence to actual Catholic moral teaching on the issue.