Accepting new truths

In his interview with Ariadne Massa (The Sunday Times, December 30), Gozo Bishop Mario Grech acknowledged the importance of the media in putting across the Church's message. If the article truly reflected Mgr Grech's message, then either his views on homosexuality are way out of line, or he lacks sensitivity in the way he communicates his message.

Gay people are no more candidates for sainthood than any other group in society. However, their 'sinfulness' does not come from their being gay but simply from the fact that they are human. What offends us is the groundless belief that it is our gay identity that leads us to sin and that needs to be cured. The loving relationships we enter into and the supportive friendships we build make us richer as human beings. They are the best part of who we are.

The bishop makes reference to the gay 'lifestyle'. We do not have lifestyles - we have lives just like straight people. Gay Catholics are not excluded from full communion in the Church because of their 'lifestyle' but because they love a person of the same, rather than of the opposite, sex. One could be in a faithful, monogamous gay relationship for 10 years - which even Mgr Grech must acknowledge in no way constitutes promiscuous behaviour - and still be considered by the Church as "indulging in a wrong sexuality".

Mgr Grech was also reported as saying: "I understand that a person who is oriented that way has a condition." His words unfortunately prove that he doesn't, in fact, understand.

It has been proved time and again that homosexuality is not a condition, disease, illness, choice, phase or whatever other improper way the Church calls it. Homosexuality is simply a way in which a minority experiences and lives its sexuality, and is a variant from the more common heterosexuality.

Heterosexuality is not the 'normal' sexuality, as some insist on calling it... it is just more common. Using the same simile that Mgr Grech used in his arguments with Ms Massa, left-handed people are not abnormal and do not suffer from any 'conditions' when compared with the absolute majority who write with their right hand - left-handed people are just less common.

Up to some time ago, however, lefties were considered to have been born with an abnormal condition and were forced to write with their right hand. It's the same with gay people today - society shuns, and tries to change, what is already perfectly in order.

Unfortunately, every time members of the Church speak about gay issues, they rely solely on Scripture. ignoring proven scientific knowledge.

The Church has always been slow, if not the last institution on earth, to accept new truths. In the 17th century, faced with scientific proof, the Church denied the clear fact that the Earth rotates around the sun and not vice-versa, claiming that the theory was contrary to the literal meaning of Scripture. For refusing to give up, Galileo Galilei was forced to spend his last years under house arrest. The Pope deemed him a heretic, quoting Scripture to attempt to disprove what science was proving.

The Church then could not admit that the Bible was a book about God, and not about astronomy, just as many people today have trouble admitting that the Bible is not a book about human sexuality. In 1992, almost four centuries later, Pope John Paul II admitted that the Church had been wrong to interpret the Bible literally and apologised for the way the great astronomer was treated.

In 2008, the Catholic Church unfortunately continues to negatively influence millions with flawed arguments against a historically oppressed minority. One can maybe expect a papal apology within the next few centuries.