"Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder"
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A sentence like this is engineered to sound pastoral while delivering a hard institutional verdict. Ratzinger grants a narrow mercy up front: the “inclination… is not a sin.” That concession isn’t a softening so much as a legal definition, separating interior disposition from chosen act. It lets the Church maintain the language of compassion while preserving the moral architecture that follows.
The pivot comes fast: “more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil.” “Ordered” is doing heavy work. It treats desire as teleological, aimed toward an end, so the person’s inner life is framed not as neutral variation but as directionally disobedient. “Intrinsic moral evil” is the rhetorical equivalent of a locked door; it forecloses debate by placing the matter in the non-negotiable category of acts that can’t be redeemed by intention, circumstance, or outcome. Then the clincher: “objective disorder.” That phrase carries the chill of clinical diagnosis without the messiness of science. “Objective” claims authority beyond culture or experience; “disorder” marks the person’s desire as a defect in the moral order itself.
The context is late-20th-century Catholic doctrine under pressure from rapidly shifting social norms. Ratzinger, as chief guardian of orthodoxy, is not merely offering opinion; he’s building a firewall: protect the Church from being compelled (internally or legally) to treat same-sex relationships as morally equivalent to heterosexual marriage, while still insisting on respect for persons. The subtext is discipline: you can be welcomed as a soul, but your self-understanding cannot be affirmed as truth.
The pivot comes fast: “more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil.” “Ordered” is doing heavy work. It treats desire as teleological, aimed toward an end, so the person’s inner life is framed not as neutral variation but as directionally disobedient. “Intrinsic moral evil” is the rhetorical equivalent of a locked door; it forecloses debate by placing the matter in the non-negotiable category of acts that can’t be redeemed by intention, circumstance, or outcome. Then the clincher: “objective disorder.” That phrase carries the chill of clinical diagnosis without the messiness of science. “Objective” claims authority beyond culture or experience; “disorder” marks the person’s desire as a defect in the moral order itself.
The context is late-20th-century Catholic doctrine under pressure from rapidly shifting social norms. Ratzinger, as chief guardian of orthodoxy, is not merely offering opinion; he’s building a firewall: protect the Church from being compelled (internally or legally) to treat same-sex relationships as morally equivalent to heterosexual marriage, while still insisting on respect for persons. The subtext is discipline: you can be welcomed as a soul, but your self-understanding cannot be affirmed as truth.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Prefect Joseph Ratzinger), 1 Oct 1986 — English text distinguishes inclination from sin and calls the inclination an 'objective disorder'. |
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