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Pastoral care of homosexual people

The Church’s pastoral response to people of same-sex orientation involves a respectful attitude and a sympathetic understanding of their situation in addition to sacramental life, prayer, counsel and individual care so that the whole Christian community can come to recognise its own call to assist its brothers and sisters, without deluding them or isolating them.

It is recognised that human nature is frail and subject to temptation. The Church's pastors are concerned to understand and to help those who find it hard to live in accordance with the Church’s teaching.

All are precious in the eyes of God. The love which one person can have for and receive from another is a gift of God. Nevertheless, God calls all people to keep his law and to work towards achieving a difficult ideal, even if this will only be achieved gradually. God has a love for every person which is greater than any love which one human being could have for another. In all the circumstances and situations of life, God calls each person, whatever his or her sexual orientation, to fulfil that part of his created design which only that person can fulfil.

  • A helpful guide to the Church's teaching about homosexuality can be found in a note written by Cardinal Hume in 1997, which can be downloaded from here.
  • Additional guidance is provided in an article by Archbishop Nichols in an article published in March 2012, which can be downloaded from here.
  • The Archbishop’s Council of the Diocese of Westminster, reflecting on the pastoral needs of homosexual Catholics and their families has approved the celebration of Mass at Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street, W1F 9JR. This Mass is part of the normal pastoral outreach of the Diocese, open to everyone and is celebrated on Sunday at 5pm twice a month. The provision of this celebration of Mass is a complement to the welcome offered to homosexual Catholics, along with all other Catholics, in our own parish of St Johns' Wood.

The parish is part of the Diocese of Westminster
Church of Our Lady, 54 Lodge Road, London. NW8 8LA Tel. 020 7286 3214