SAN FRANCISCO -- The Roman Catholic Church's new policy in the archdiocese of San Francisco says it's all right to be a homosexual but it is wrong to engage in homosexual acts.
A report issued Monday by a committee of priests and approved by Archbishop John Quinn says homosexuality is not a sinful condition but it calls on homosexuals to live out 'the demands of chastity within that orientation.'
The report is the official church teaching on the subject in the archdiocese, where the issue of homosexuality has created tensions in recent years.
Robert McElroy, one of the members of the committee that wrote the report, said it recveved a unanimous vote of the priests' senate and 'it is now the official policy of the archdiocese.'
'The homosexual orientation is not held to be a sinful condition,' the report said. 'As with heterosexuality, it represents the situation in which one finds oneself, the starting point for one's response to Christ's call to perfection.
'Responding to this call does not mean that one must change this orientation. Rather it entails leving out the demands of chastity within that orientation.'
The report encourages homosexuals to thwart loneliness and temptations to promiscuity by forming a close relationship with one person, despite the possibility this could lead to sexual activity.
'Homosexual people fall in love,' it said. 'And as long as this is so, sexual activity might occasionally occur.
'Objectively, the church teaches that homosexual activy in such unions, or in any situation, is morally unacceptable. The principle of gradualism recognizes this fact and assists the person toward a progressive assimilation of the church's ethical values.'
The Rev. Miles Riley, an archdiocese spokesman, said the 'principle of gradualism' meant that although there may be 'homosexual genital activity' in such a union, 'that individual and relationship should not be judged on the basis of that slip but on the basis of direction. Trying to follow God's moral law should not be condemned.'
The new teaching, published by the archdiocesan newspaper, was developed over a period of two years by a special task force of the priests' senate. It is titled 'Ministry and Sexuality in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.'
In a statement published with the report, Quinn said he asked the priests' senate to prepare it 'so that the archdiocese might respond to the large number of homosexual people within it.'
It differs from an earlier report on homosexuality issued last September by the Commission on Social Justice of the archdiocese, which aroused controversy within church circles because of its lenient position towards homosexual activity.
Asked about how the two reports would be implemented, Quinn said in some facets they coincide, such as in condemning violence against homosexuals. But, he said, the new report by the priests' senate 'is fully in conformity with the teaching of the church.'
