Parents have the principal moral responsibility of educating their sons and daughters in matters of human sexuality. As teachers, catechists and other educators, you play a role insofar as you carry out your responsibilities in the name of the parents and with their consent.
In the catechesis of young adults, it is imperative to present in a firm but charitable way the true nature and purpose of human sexuality in all its dimensions. Encourage them in the practice of chastity, especially since society often misunderstands and scorns this virtue. Avoidance of diffcult questions or watering down the Church’s teaching is always a disservice. Such attitudes could lead young people into grave moral danger. “Moral conscience requires that, in every occasion, Christians give witness to the whole moral truth, which is contradicted both by approval of homosexual acts and unjust discrimination against homosexual persons.”16
We ask you to pay particular attention to guiding adolescents and young adults with same-sex attraction away from two specifc dangers. First, help them see themselves as persons with a God-given dignity and not merely as individuals with sexual inclinations and desires. Second, help them avoid involvement in a “gay culture” opposed to the Church’s teaching, with its often aggressive and immoral lifestyle.
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Pastoral Ministry to Young People with Same-Sex Attraction, section 16
16 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons (2003), n. 5.
