"Without fail, it brings death to the body and destruction to the
soul. It pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels
the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart, and gives entrance
to the devil, the stimulator of lust. It leads to error, totally removes
truth from the deluded mind ... It opens up hell and closes the gates
of paradise ... It is this vice that violates temperance, slays modesty,
strangles chastity, and slaughters virginity ... It defiles all things,
sullies all things, pollutes all things ...
"This vice excludes
a man from the assembled choir of the Church ... it separates the soul
from God to associate it with demons. This utterly diseased queen of
Sodom renders him who obeys the laws of her tyranny infamous to men and
odious to God. She strips her knights of the armor of virtue, exposing
them to be pierced by the spears of every vice ... She humiliates her
slave in the church and condemns him in court; she defiles him in secret
and dishonors him in public; she gnaws at his conscience like a worm
and consumes his flesh like fire. ... this unfortunate man (he) is
deprived of all moral sense, his memory fails, and the mind's vision is
darkened. Unmindful of God, he also forgets his own identity. This
disease erodes the foundation of faith, saps the vitality of hope,
dissolves the bond of love. It makes way with justice, demolishes
fortitude, removes temperance, and blunts the edge of prudence. Shall I
say more?"
- St. Peter Damian, Book of Gomorrah : An Eleventh-Century Treatise against Clerical Homosexual Practices
Like any sin, the sacraments of the Church that Christ gave us can save anyone who desires it.
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