1.) “The problem is that, rightly developed, natural-law thinking seems to support rather than reject the morality of homosexual behavior.”
For those of us who lived through the horror of the first AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 90s, natural law has proven to be cruelly accurate, but unkind; I discovered this first hand, after only a few first experiences with gay male sex; it became abundantly clear, that the anus was not analogous to the vagina. At 19, I had to make my first, of many visits, to several proctologists in and around San Francisco: the waiting rooms were always filled with a few octogenarian straight old men and cadre of handsome young gay guys. We were rallying against nature, but after a few painful surgeries, I knew we had lost. For a while, especially in 1994, death reigned – as once beautiful men turned into skeletons; later, science came up with newer and more sophisticated means to battle the inevitable; despite its absence from the headlines, HIV still cuts through the gay community: The Centers for Disease Control report that 78.7% of all HIV diagnoses in men occurred among the homosexual population vs. 11.8% in heterosexual men. The rate of HIV diagnosis in homosexual men is 6.67 higher than in heterosexual men. Using the CDC population estimate of 4% of the population for homosexual men, that means that homosexual men are 160X more likely to contract HIV then heterosexual men. To put this increased risk in context, consider what the CDC tells us about risk of lung cancer for men who smoke: 23X higher than for those who don't.
2.) “Since the official church, under Pope Francis, is more than ever open to this sensible view, the time is overdue for a revision of its philosophical misunderstanding of homosexual acts.”
There are the sound bites and the rhetoric, then there are the actual words from the man; when asked about homosexuality, the Holy Father stated rather simply and definitively: “The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church…”
3.) “There is considerable discussion among biblical scholars on this issue, with many suggesting that the passages that seem to condemn homosexual acts in general actually refer only to certain cases such as homosexual rape or male prostitution.”
An explicit condemnation of homosexuality is found in the book of Leviticus: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination…If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.” (Lev. 18:22, 20:13). Confirming this fact is the New Testament’s forceful rejection of homosexual behavior as well. In Romans 1, Paul attributes the homosexual desires of some to a refusal to acknowledge and worship God. He says, “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct…Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them.” (Rom. 1:26–28, 32).*
4.) “But there is nothing that requires him [Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco] to vigorously enforce a teaching that is so dubious even in terms of the church’s own view on the two sources of truth.”
According to The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons:”
“The Bishops have the particularly grave responsibility to see to it that their assistants in the ministry, above all the priests, are rightly informed and personally disposed to bring the teaching of the Church in its integrity to everyone.”
“We encourage the Bishops, then, to provide pastoral care in full accord with the teaching of the Church for homosexual persons of their dioceses. No authentic pastoral programme will include organizations in which homosexual persons associate with each other without clearly stating that homosexual activity is immoral. A truly pastoral approach will appreciate the need for homosexual persons to avoid the near occasions of sin.”
5.) “More generally, the church needs to undertake a thorough rethinking of its teachings on sexual ethics, including premarital sex, masturbation and remarriage after divorce.”
Issues such as “sexual ethics” are under the precepts of natural law; according to “The Catechism of the Catholic Church:” “The natural law is immutable and permanent throughout the variations of history; it subsists under the flux of ideas and customs and supports their progress. The rules that express it remain substantially valid. Even when it is rejected in its very principles, it cannot be destroyed or removed from the heart of man. It always rises again in the life of individuals and societies.” (CCC #1958)
*Thank you to Catholic Answers for helping with this section.