"Gay" lobby.

"We allow nothing to stand by itself: we compare, contrast, abstract, generalize, connect, adjust, classify."--J.H. Newman.

In Canada, the "gay" lobby strives tirelessly, not without success, to convince itself and others that homosexuality is something natural, normal, unique, sui generis, one of a kind. Of course, it is nothing of the sort. Homosexuality is one among a class of pleasures which both pagan and Christian moralists have categorized as unnatural, not in accord with human nature.

In a sense, it is natural and normal for certain individuals to seek to satisfy his or her sexual cravings and desires with a person of his or her sex, or with animals; but it is neither natural, normal, nor reasonable to exercise one's reproductive powers in such sterile unions. Just as, in a sense, it is natural and normal for a sick man to feel and act sickly, e.g., to take pleasure in food which in health was bitter or sour. But, again, it is neither natural nor normal for a man to be sick. Moreover, there is a cause or causes, known or presently unknown for his illness (Cf. Summa Theologica, Ia, IIae, 31, 7).

Even as a disordered sexual orientation, homosexuality does not stand by itself. Bestiality is another disorder. Here, comparison and contrast could serve to throw in bold relief the more sordid features of each.

"Ay, there's the rub." Ordinary people have the power of not thinking of that about which they do not wish to think. "Do not meditate on the passages about the Messiah; said the Jew to his son" (a Pensee of Pascal).

The point this letter attempts to make, rightly or wrongly, is that homosexuality must never be treated in isolation; but always in the context of the traditional teaching on unnatural pleasures, and in conjunction with one or more of the intrinsically disordered orientations to which flesh is heir; e.g., cannibalism, bestiality, eating of clay and dirt, and perhaps, kleptomania and pyromania.

I was intrigued to learn that Aristotle listed the habit of gnawing the nails among unnatural pleasures. (Should not a comparison and contrast between nail-biting and homosexuality provide an interesting study?) As a former teacher, I was made painfully aware what the burden of the habit of nail-biting, so difficult to break, poses for youth. One's attitude towards a beloved but troubled student may well serve as a model of one's attitude towards all those afflicted with a disordered orientation: an attitude of respect, compassion, and helpful, prayerful aid.

Suffer a couple of additional points by way of completion. First, one must be ever mindful, especially today, of the warning so well put by the late Prof. E. Gibson:

"Moral science alone is not enough either to condemn man or to absolve them, but it does suffice to distinguish good from evil, and it sees to it that vice is not exalted into virtue."

Finally, as to the sinfulness of all or any of the unnatural pleasures consequent to and following from intrinsically disordered orientations, in imitation of Newman is another area, "I submit the whole subject to the theological school."

St. Peter's Bay, P.E.I.