Reddit mentions of Sexual Authenticity: An Intimate Reflection on Homosexuality and Catholicism

First of all, please don't feel gays are singled out by the Church. Yes, the Catholic Church does have hard teachings for our same-sex attracted brethren(calling them to chastity).  But it also has hard teachings for heterosexual singles, for married couples, and for those called to monkhood/nunhood/priesthood... hard teachings for everyone. And the reason for following the hard teachings is not because we believe in some kind of punishing, humorless tyrant-god, as many people assume.  The reason for following the hard teachings to realize our true self by transcending ourselves, which is actually way more zen and way less puritanical than people give it credit for being.


A couple resources you might find helpful are:
This short film about the journeys of 3 lgbt Catholics, The Desire of the Everlasting Hills

and

This book, Sexual Authenticity by Melissa Selmys, a bisexual convert to Catholicism

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But you might also want to read some Christian apologetics, like
G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy(not nearly as dry and long as it sounds) or David Bentley Hart's Atheist Delusions(he is not responsible for that provocative title)... Just to hear some compelling cases for faith made by intelligent, well-educated people.

And you might want to spend some time immersing yourself in the beauty of Gregorian music/Catholic artwork (like Michealangelo and DaVinci.)

The reason I say this, is because personally was able to understand and love the beauty, logic and intelligence of Christianity(and Catholicism in particular) long before I could get my head around its hard moral teachings.
Now I understand it as a whole, why it has to be this way, and makes perfect sense. But at first, from where I was at, I could only grasp the beauty and the logic.

Feel free to pm me if you have any more questions or aspects of the Faith you want to discuss. I will remember both you and your bf in my prayers.

I think he surrounding himself with all these homophobic information sources is just going to make it worse. Have you tried giving him a good book on being gay (or other information sources)?


I don't really have any to recommend unfortunately but you can probably find some good recommendations on one of the LGBT subs on reddit.


I think it would be good for him to have to other side properly explained to him.


EDIT: I've been trying to look up some good books. This one (God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines) seems pretty good so far. Building a Bridge by James Martin, Gay and Catholic by Eve Tushnet and Sexual Authenticity by Melinda Selmys also seem to be highly recommended pro-gay books on the catholic books part of amazon.


The sub r/GayChristians may also help


Like this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/GayChristians/comments/8sp5lu/im_a_christian_boy_in_high_school_and_im_gay/

Hey brother, great to hear you're thinking about joining us in the Catholic Church. We're all happy to help you with your questions and anything else in any way we can. Also, you're from the U.K.? That's awesome. G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Evelyn Waugh, and Charles Dickens are my favorite writers, and they're all from the U.K. as well, and my favorite modern Catholic philosopher, Alasdair MacInytre, is as well and was once an agnostic/atheist like yourself.

Regarding your first question, I would encourage you to check out this great blog called Spiritual Friendship, which is run by a group of gay Catholics and Protestants who agree with the Catholic Church's teaching on sexual ethics but see same-sex attraction as a call to spiritual friendship. Several friends of mine write for this blog:
http://spiritualfriendship.org/

Melinda Selmys also has a great book on the topic here: http://www.amazon.com/Sexual-Authenticity-Reflection-Homosexuality-Catholicism/dp/1592764932/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405224649&sr=8-1&keywords=Melinda+Selmys

I accept the Church's teachings on human sexuality but I think there's a lack of a support network for lay Catholics who are called to a life of chaste celibacy, whether they're homosexual or heterosexual, and we need to do a much better job supporting them in their support of chastity, and I say that as a heterosexual Catholic called to a life of chaste celibacy. I understand and can empathize with my similarly situated gay brothers and sisters in Christ.