section_path: Social, moral and cultural issues/Sexual morality/Homosexuality
section_name: Homosexuality
paragraph_text: Homosexuality
  
  The Catholic Church also teaches that "homosexual acts" are "contrary to the natural law", "acts of grave depravity" and "under no circumstances can they be approved", but that persons experiencing homosexual tendencies must be accorded respect and dignity. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
  
  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...Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
  
  This part of the Catechism was quoted by Pope Francis in a 2013 press interview in which he remarked, when asked about an individual:
  
  I think that when you encounter a person like this, you must make a distinction between the fact of a person being gay from the fact of being a lobby, because lobbies, all are not good. That is bad. If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, well who am I to judge them?
  
  This remark and others made in the same interview were seen as a change in the tone, but not in the substance of the teaching of the church, which includes opposition to same-sex marriage.
  
  Certain dissenting Catholic groups, such as DignityUSA, oppose the position of the Catholic Church and seek to change it. The Catholic Church has banned all such groups from church property.
  
  Orthodox Catholic groups, such as Building Catholic Futures, encourage parishes to incorporate celibate gay people into the church communities.