Why won’t the Catholic Church embrace homosexuals?

Q: Jesus embraced the sinner. The Church reconciles women after abortion and has prison outreach. Why won’t the Church embrace homosexuals?

A: For the record, the Church does have an outreach to homosexual persons known as “Courage.” It emphasizes living the virtue of chastity by teaching that homosexuals live celibately. While many do except this outreach, it is also true many homosexuals reject this call to live celibately.

It is of course challenging for the Church to reach out to those homosexuals who insist that the only way we can “properly” minister to them is to accept wholeheartedly and uncritically what God teaches is sinful.

Jesus embraced sinners, but he also called them to repentance. Proper ministry, and love, is rooted in the truth of what God reveals. Scripture consistently and at every stage defines homosexual acts as gravely disordered and sinful. It also condemns fornication, adultery and incest.