If you haven’t yet, check out “The Third Way” video from Blackstone Films. It is worth spending each of the 38 minutes it takes to watch it.
The Third Way from Blackstone Films on Vimeo.
I just showed it to my class at Benedictine College, and it does several things very well:
First, it helps Catholics stop thinking of same-sex attracted people as somehow not really what they say they are.
It seems that for one part of the culture, the Church’s teaching (CCC 2357) that homosexual sexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law” is unthinkable. For another the church’s teaching a few sentences later is unthinkable:
“The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.”
The film does a good job of showing that both are absolutely true.
Second, the video also helps clarify that homosexuals are not alone in their struggle with chastity. The debates about homosexual marriage make it seem as if it is unjust for the Church to teach that some sexual acts are immoral, because it dooms homosexual people to a life without sex. Well, by the morality of the Bible and the Church and most other religions, single people are just as doomed. They also have sexual feelings that they cannot act on.
The video helps get that point across, too.
But mostly, it inspires compassion and understanding for a group of people who have a very hard time finding either: homosexual Catholics who want to be chaste. Secular homosexuals think they should just “get over” their Catholicism. Catholics often think they should just “get over” their gayness.
Watch the video and learn that they cannot easily do either.