Church Teaching on Sexual Ethics for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People

The Church teaches that the only moral sexual acts are those that are open to procreation, which bring two people (one male, one female) closer together in loving intimacy, and which are performed in the context of Christian marriage.  Because homosexual acts do not have a procreative element, they are not morally approved.

The following are quotes from magisterial documents.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994, #2359

“Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.”


Human Sexuality: A Catholic Perspective for Education and Lifelong Learning, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1991.

“Objectively speaking, it is morally wrong, and subjectively, one may guilty of serious sin…”


Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1986.

“It is only in the marital relationship that the use of the sexual faculty can be morally good.  A person engaging in homosexual [homogenital] activity therefore acts immorally.”