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Document Details :

Title: Homosexuality, Crisis, and Communal Discernment
Subtitle: A Reflection on the Catholic Church's Crisis-Inducing Attitude on Homosexuality
Author(s): VANDENHOECK, Anne
Journal: Louvain Studies
Volume: 45    Issue: 1   Date: 2022   
Pages: 83-96
DOI: 10.2143/LS.45.1.3290308

Abstract :
In this contribution we zoom in on the crisis around homosexuality within the church, triggered by the February 2021 responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. This responsum exposed the tension between the church and cultures, between the leadership of the church and the faithful, and between different ideologies within the church. At the same time, the responsum painfully expressed the negation of the synodal spirit present in Amoris Laetitia, which came out of the Synod on the Family in 2015. The crisis brought about by the responsum calls for further communal discernment, following the discernment processes during the Synod on the Family in 2015, and for processes of reconciliation. As the church struggles to recalibrate its teaching on sexuality, it excludes groups of people, hurting those who are involved with them, and burdening every form of pastoral care. Can a process of communal discernment and a synodal church bring change?

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