CSDC 228

Connected with de facto unions is the particular problem concerning demands for the legal recognition of unions between homosexual persons, which is increasingly the topic of public debate. Only an anthropology corresponding to the full truth of the human person can give an appropriate response to this problem with its different aspects on both the societal and ecclesial levels⁵⁰³ Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1 October 1986), 1-2: AAS 79AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 79 (1987) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1987), 543-544.. The light of such anthropology reveals “how incongruous is the demand to accord ‘marital' status to unions between persons of the same sex. It is opposed, first of all, by the objective impossibility of making the partnership fruitful through the transmission of life according to the plan inscribed by God in the very structure of the human being. Another obstacle is the absence of the conditions for that interpersonal complementarity between male and female willed by the Creator at both the physical-biological and the eminently psychological levels. It is only in the union of two sexually different persons that the individual can achieve perfection in a synthesis of unity and mutual psychophysical completion”⁵⁰⁴ John Paul II, Address to the Tribunal of the Roman Rota (21 January 1999), 5: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 10 February 1999, p. 3.. Homosexual persons are to be fully respected in their human dignity ⁵⁰⁵ Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Document on Some Considerations Concerning the Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons (23 July 1992): L'Osservatore Romano, 24 July 1992, p. 4; cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Persona Humana (29 December 1975), 8: AAS 68AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 68 (1976) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1976), 84-85. and encouraged to follow God's plan with particular attention in the exercise of chastity⁵⁰⁶ Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2357-2359.. This duty calling for respect does not justify the legitimization of behaviour that is not consistent with moral law, even less does it justify the recognition of a right to marriage between persons of the same sex and its being considered equivalent to the family⁵⁰⁷ Cf. John Paul II, Address to Spanish Bishops on their Ad Limina Visit (19 February 1998), 4: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 11 March 1998, p. 5; Pontifical Council for the Family, Family, Marriage and “De facto Unions” (26 July 2000), 23, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2000, pp. 40-43; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons (3 June 2003), Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2003.. “If, from the legal standpoint, marriage between a man and a woman were to be considered just one possible form of marriage, the concept of marriage would undergo a radical transformation, with grave detriment to the common good. By putting homosexual unions on a legal plane analogous to that of marriage and the family, the State acts arbitrarily and in contradiction with its duties”⁵⁰⁸ Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons (3 June 2003), 8, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2003, p. 9..