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On March 8, feast of St John, patron saint of those suffering from mental disorders, Fr Kevin Schembri, an “accredited canon lawyer”, argued on Xarabank that homosexuality is not a disorder because God made it “and saw that it was good’’. This thBorn this way? - Fr David Muscat
On March 8, feast of St John, patron saint of those suffering from mental disorders, Fr Kevin Schembri, an “accredited canon lawyer”, argued on Xarabank that homosexuality is not a disorder because God made it “and saw that it was good’’. This theory deserves consideration, not for its merits – it has none – but because his views have gained significant traction among Catholics. Schembri’s theory is threefold. Firstly, God makes you gay. Secondly, homoerotic intimacy is not objectively disordered. Thirdly, since the Catholic Church bases itself not just on the Bible but also on tradition it reinterprets those Sacred Scripture texts that at prima facie condemn homosexuality. I’ll start from the third premise. It is clear that Fr Kevin does not have an inkling of what the “development of doctrine’’ and “tradition’’ mean. In Chapter 5 of his ‘An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine’ (1845) John Newman proposes seven criteria to distinguish between authentic and false change, i.e. a corruption of a doctrine and a legitimate development of it. Fr Kevin’s arguments fail Newman’s test. He has no continuity of principles (2nd criterion) and does not actively conserve... Read more