Old Testament
Scripture
Law of Moses Leviticus 18:22
“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
Short answer
The Church teaches that homosexual acts are sinful. St. Paul names them in Romans and First Corinthians, and the Fathers, St. Thomas Aquinas and the Catechism say the same. The Church also teaches that the inclination is not itself a sin. She says that people who have it must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity, and she calls them to chastity.
Drafted from primary sources. Every quotation is checked against the page it links to.
16 quotations in date order
The Old Testamentbefore Christ
The Apostolic AgeAD 1 to 100
c. AD 30
Scripture
Jesus Matthew 19:4-6
“He answered, "Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one'? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder."”
c. 55
Scripture
St. Paul 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
c. 57
Scripture
St. Paul Romans 1:26-27
“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.”
The Early Church100 to 325
c. 110-140
Church Father
St. Polycarp of Smyrna Letter to the Philippians 5
“For it is well that they should be cut off from the lusts that are in the world, since every lust wars against the spirit; [1 Peter 2:11] and neither fornicators, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, shall inherit the kingdom of God”
The Age of the Councils325 to 800
c. 375
Church Father
St. Basil the Great Letter 217, canon 62
“He who is guilty of unseemliness with males will be under discipline for the same time as adulterers.”
c. 391
Church Father
St. John Chrysostom Homily 4 on Romans, on Romans 1:26-27
“All these affections then were vile, but chiefly the mad lust after males; for the soul is more the sufferer in sins, and more dishonored, than the body in diseases.”
c. 397-400
Church Father
St. Augustine Confessions, Book 3, 8.15
“Therefore those offenses which be contrary to nature are everywhere and at all times to be held in detestation and punished; such were those of the Sodomites, which should all nations commit, they should all be held guilty of the same crime by the divine law, which has not so made men that they should in that way abuse one another.”
The Middle Ages800 to 1500
c. 1272
Doctor of the Church
St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 154, a. 11, body
“This may occur in two ways: First, through being contrary to right reason, and this is common to all lustful vices; secondly, because, in addition, it is contrary to the natural order of the venereal act as becoming to the human race: and this is called "the unnatural vice." This may happen in several ways. … Thirdly, by copulation with an undue sex, male with male, or female with female, as the Apostle states (Romans 1:27)”
The Modern Era1800 to today
1975
Magisterium
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Declaration Persona Humana, 8
“For according to the objective moral order, homosexual relations are acts which lack an essential and indispensable finality. In Sacred Scripture they are condemned as a serious depravity and even presented as the sad consequence of rejecting God. … This judgment of Scripture does not of course permit us to conclude that all those who suffer from this anomaly are personally responsible for it, but it does attest to the fact that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and can in no case be approved of.”
1986
Magisterium
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, 3
“Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.”
1986
Magisterium
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, 4
“One is a new exegesis of Sacred Scripture which claims variously that Scripture has nothing to say on the subject of homosexuality, or that it somehow tacitly approves of it, or that all of its moral injunctions are so culture-bound that they are no longer applicable to contemporary life. These views are gravely erroneous and call for particular attention here.”
1986
Magisterium
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, 10
“It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action and in law.”
1992
Magisterium
Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC 2357
“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”
1992
Magisterium
Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC 2358-2359
“They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition. … 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.”
2023
Magisterium
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Declaration Fiducia Supplicans, 4
“This conviction is grounded in the perennial Catholic doctrine of marriage; it is only in this context that sexual relations find their natural, proper, and fully human meaning. The Church's doctrine on this point remains firm.”