The Church and the State on Homosexuality
In a BBC HARDtalk interview hosted by Stephen Sackur on 27 November 2023, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson stated that “gay people should not be criminalized because they have committed no crime”. This statement, among others, gave rise to a whole lot of discussion on social media as to what the Cardinal meant by that. Some people took the statement to mean an endorsement of homosexuality. For others, it meant that homosexual acts should not be punished. Then also the question may be asked how this statement is to be taken vis-à-vis the draft bill on “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values 2021” currently in Parliament in Ghana. In this paper, it will be argued that a distinction needs to be made between the homosexual as a person and the acts that he may carry out as a homosexual person. We will look at this from the point of view of the Catholic Church and the State.
The Catholic Church and Homosexuality
The Catholic Church sees the practice of homosexuality as something condemned by many passages in the Bible (Leviticus 18:22; Genesis 19:1-28; Romans 1:2627; 1 Corinthians 6:9). It also sees homosexuality as being incompatible with the creation stories about man and woman in Genesis. In the opening chapters of Genesis, the creation of the sexes by God is presented as having a twofold purpose: men and women are meant to come together in a one-flesh unity of life (Gen 2:24) and to beget children (Gen 1:28). Since sexual activity was seen to be ordered to procreation and the continuance of the human race, any form of sexual activity other than heterosexual intercourse is against nature and is a clear violation of right reason. For the Church, to choose someone of the same sex for one’s sexual activity or for marriage is to annul the rich symbolism and meaning, not to mention the goals, of God’s sexual design. Homosexual activity is not a complementary union, able to transmit life, and so it thwarts the call to a life of that form of selfgiving which the Gospel says is the essence of Christian living.
The Catholic Church makes a distinction between “the homosexual condition or tendency” and “individual homosexual actions”. With regard to the former, the Church does not condemn people for being homosexuals or for having the homosexual tendency. Homosexuals must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. The Church teaches that the intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action and in law. According to Pope Francis, the homosexual person needs to be “respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, and ‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression or violence” (Amoris Laetitia 250). For this reason, it is not right to inflict physical or other types of violence on homosexuals just because they are homosexuals. Their being homosexuals does not mean that they should be treated like criminals. Thus, homosexuals should not be treated as criminals, or criminalized, just because they are homosexuals.
The Church insists that the rights of homosexuals as persons should be respected. Homosexuals are also human beings, created in the image of God, and they should enjoy the same fundamental human rights that all people enjoy. By human rights, we mean the universal, inviolable and inalienable rights that are due to the human person as a rational being possessing a free will. Human rights protect, or are intended to protect, the dignity of the human person against State and Society. Specific human rights include the right to life, personal liberty and due process of law; to freedom of thought, expression, religion, organization, and movement; to freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, age, language, and sex; to basic education; to employment; and to property.
Nevertheless, according to the Church’s understanding of human rights, the rights of homosexuals as persons do not include the right of a man to marry a man or of a woman to marry a woman. For the Church, this is morally wrong and goes against God’s purpose for marriage.
With regard to “individual homosexual actions”, however, the Church says that they are “intrinsically disordered” and are “in no case to be approved of”.[2] Thus, while the church does not condemn homosexuals for being homosexuals, it condemns the homosexual acts that they perform. For the Church also, although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.
The long-held teaching of the Roman Catholic Church has been that while homosexual people, i.e., those who have an erotic inclination towards others of the same sex are to be loved and respected and not be discriminated against, homosexual acts are intrinsically immoral and must be condemned. It is for this reason that the Church does not approve of “unions between people of the same sex”. Following the example of Jesus himself who came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (cf. Luke 5:32 [NRSV]), the Church in its pastoral care is solicitous about the salvation of all God’s children and endeavours to show them God’s love and mercy. Thus, homosexuals should not be criminalized just for being homosexuals. Neither should they be maltreated nor attacked for being
homosexuals. It is neither a sin nor a crime to be a homosexual. It is the acts that they perform that are sinful and should be condemned.
The State and Homosexuality
With regard to homosexual acts, while the Church speaks of them as sins, the State does not use such language. For the State, whose duty it is to enact laws governing the citizenry, the language used is that of crime. What then is a crime? Crime may be defined as the intentional commission of an act usually deemed socially harmful or dangerous and specifically defined, prohibited, and punishable under criminal law. In the light of this definition, homosexual acts from the point of view of the State may be criminal in nature. For example, if a homosexual man rapes a teenage boy, that would be deemed a criminal offence, just as the same act carried out by a heterosexual man on a teenage girl would be deemed a criminal offence. In other words, these acts are not in the interest of the nation and, indeed, harm the nation. For this reason, there must be punitive measures to deal with such situations. Again, the law makers may decide that a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman is not in the interest of the nation since, in the long term, it will have an effect on the size of the population of our country if many people do this. In such a case, the law makers will be within their rights to enact laws against that. In such cases, it will be right for the law makers to criminalize such homosexual actions by punitive measures.
In conclusion, we can say that while it is not right to criminalize homosexuals just for being homosexuals, the State is within its right to criminalize the acts of homosexuals in the interest of the nation.
[1] Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics, Persona Humana, December 29, 1975, Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, par. 8.
[2] Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics, Persona Humana, December 29, 1975, Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, par. 8.
By: Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu
Bishop of Konongo-Mampon
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