Marriage exists, according to God’s creative order, only between a man and a woman, and the becoming “one flesh” refers to the procreative power of this union. As St John Chrysostom writes: “How do they become one flesh?… the child is a sort of bridge, so that the three become one flesh, the child connecting each to the other… Therefore, Scripture says with precision, not ‘they shall be one flesh,’ but that they are joined together ‘into one flesh’ (Gen 2:24 LXX), namely, that of the child. What then, when there is no child? Will they not be two? No: for their coming together diffuses and commingles their bodies, as one who pours ointment into oil makes the whole one” (St John Chrysostom, Homily 12 on Colossians; see Q011, Q017).
Homosexual activity, which is to be distinguished from homosexual attraction, is condemned without ambiguity in both the Old and the New Testament (Lev 18:22; Rom 1:26–27; 1Co 6:9–11; see Q585, Q490). Placing such activity under the civil terminology of ‘marriage,’ as is done in many countries, does not make such relationships acceptable in the eyes of the Church: to cover a practice with a respectable name does not change its nature (cf. Basis of the Social Concept, X.6).
At the same time, the Church receives with pastoral love all who struggle, calling every Christian without exception to chastity according to his or her state, and offering the healing of the Mysteries to all who repent (1Co 6:11: “and such were some of you; but you were washed, you were sanctified…”).
The holy Church is protective of the Mysteries of God entrusted to her as “pillar and foundation of the truth” (1Ti 3:15; see Q010, Q017), including the Mystery of Holy Matrimony.
