Whoa. You'd have to 'splain that one to me, if you've the patience.
And isn't openly saying "Ptui! on God's declared law of sexuality!" excommunicable?
Dan
We have all sinned, and in effect all said Ptui on God's declared law. Most of us probably have some sort of sexual sin in our past, and certainly we have all lied, or gossiped, failed to honor our mother and father, etc. All these things are times where we have said Ptui on God's law.Homosexual acts place one outside of the grace of Christ, but not outside the Church.Whoa. You'd have to 'splain that one to me, if you've the patience.And isn't openly saying "Ptui! on God's declared law of sexuality!" excommunicable?
Sexual sins aren't any different here, just more common perhaps, and in the case of homosexuality, more serious. Any sin is contrary to obedience to Christ, right? Once you are Baptized Catholic, you are a Catholic. You will likely sin at some point after that, barring an early death. Despite that sin you remain a Catholic because you still bear the mark of baptism. It may be the equivalent of saying you are a CINO (Catholic in Name Only) in a sense, but your sin cannot erase the mark of baptism. It does, however, bring you a warm and toasty afterlife.
patent +AMDG
It is sin. Excommunication is an external action separating a Catholic from the Church for certain specific actions. It is essentially a public sanctioning of a person. In the past, lifting an excommunication was reserved to a bishop (in the case of procuring an abortion, that can now be done by a priest in the confessional).
Homosexual acts, while heinous and grievously sinful, do not merit a public separation from the Church.
Does adultery, in your mind, merit excommunication?
If everything that one thinks is terrible becomes subject to excommunication, then the sanction loses its "hammer value."