In this context, he recalled what was established by Catechism in numeral 2357: “Homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Decl. Human Person, 8). They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not come from a true emotional and sexual complementarity. They can not be approved under any circumstances”.
Next, the 78-year-old African Cardinal maintained that “any pastoral action that does not remember this objective truth would fail in the first work of mercy which is the gift of truth.”
He also assured that a disciple of Jesus cannot stop there, but, just as Jesus did when faced with the adulterous woman, he must offer “a path of conversion, of life in the truth.”
Then he cited the Catechism again, in numeral 2359, to remember that: “Homosexual people are called to chastity. Through virtues of self-control that educate inner freedom, and sometimes through the support of disinterested friendship, prayer and sacramental grace, they can and must gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.”