This is the sixth post in a series on understanding same sex attraction. The other five posts are:
–On Terminology
–Within Catholicism
–Newman and Michelangelo
–Broadening Same-Sex-Attraction
–Learning from the Pro-Life Movement
The conclusion of Notre Dame’s “comprehensive review of GLBTQ student services and support” on December 5, 2012 immediately garnered national attention. The University announced new and revised structures, and not everyone was pleased with the changes. An Autostraddle article criticized the review’s emphasis on chastity. One Notre Dame alumus said in a Catholic News Agency article that “the plan provides a venue for opposition to Catholic teaching, boosts the gay rights movement, and damages the school’s Catholic reputation.” The presidents of Notre Dame’s Progressive Student Alliance, the student club leading the charge for an undergraduate gay-straight alliance, however, immediately issued a letter supporting the changes. It seems that the majority of voiced opinions from the student body have supported the plan. One will notice this in the comments of many news articles, including Autostraddle’s critique.
The plan is titled: Beloved Friends and Allies: A Pastoral Plan for the Support and Holistic Development of GLBTQ and Heterosexual Students at the University of Notre Dame. If you have not yet read the five-page statement, I highly recommend it…
The rest of this post can be found in my book, “I Desired You: An Intellectual Journal on Faith and Sexuality.” You can order a copy here.
Authentic Love is ordered to the inherent personal and relational Dignity of the human person; a man does not Love his wife, in the same manner as he Loves his son, or daughter, or father, or mother, or friend. Identifying oneself or someone else as an object of sexual desire/orientation, as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, demeans our inherent dignity as human persons in direct violation of God’s Commandment regarding lust and the sin of adultery, which is why such terms cannot be found in The Language of Love, The Word of God. Our call to Holiness, has always been a call to be chaste in our thoughts, in our words, and in our deeds; every son and daughter has the inherent Right to be treated with dignity and respect in private as well as in public because every son and daughter is Loved by God. To deny that there is an order to Love, is to deny God. To deny God, is to deny the inherent dignity of the human person created in The Image of God as a reflection of Love, although not yet perfected.
LikeLike