Homosexuality ‘not freely chosen’

In a public statement addressed chiefly to pastoral workers on the official Swiss church website kath.ch, the president of the Swiss bishops’ conference, Markus Büchel of St Gallen, has warned that “Old Testament” views of homosexuality need to be read in the light of the Gospels. The Catholic Church must “deliberately face its historic burden regarding its handling of homosexuality and find a new, humane and objective language” for its teaching on the subject, he underlined. The key to an appropriate contemporary interpretation of biblical statements was love of one’s neighbour, which took priority in Jesus Christ’s teaching, he said. “What we know about homosexuality today, namely that it is a predisposition and not a freely chosen orientation, was not known in biblical times”, he recalled. 

Bishop Büchel was reacting to statements made by his fellow bishop, Vitus Huonder of Chur, in a lecture on marriage and the family at the Joy in Faith meeting organised by the conservative Forum of German Catholics at Fulda a day previously. Quoting Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 on the “abomination” of homosexuality – “they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them” – Bishop Huonder said these two passages “would suffice to put the question of homosexuality on the correct path from the point of view of the faith”. The question of homosexuality was significant for marriage and the family, Bishop Huonder said. “There isn’t such a thing as diversity when it comes to marriage and family models.” His comments were applauded.

A storm of protest followed and  Bishop Büchel was flooded with angry emails. Bishop Huonder has since said his points were “misunderstood”.