@tearlach- To be fair, I don't think any of our German Brüder were being harsh or Pharisaical. I lived in Regensburg Germany for 2 years, the heart of Catholic Germany, and I miss the Catholic expressions of faith that permeate the South German culture, something I don’t see among American Catholics. In addition, in many ways the Germans are even more tolerant of people, on the personal level, living alternative lifestyles than Americans are. What upsets many German Catholics is that some Bishops in their overemphasis on being charitable to the person with same sex attractions are overlooking the sin of sodomy- and even a kind of de-facto acceptance of the behavior. Case in point Bishop Schonborn, recently allowed a practicing gay man to be on the man's local parish board. This was over the objections to the parish priest, who told the man that he would have to stop his gay behavior in order to be in good standing with the Church. Catholics have a personal relationship with Christ and insubstantiate this every time they receive Him in holy Eucharist, but if a Catholic is practicing homosexual behavior then their sin is mortal and blocks them from a personal relationship with Our Lord. A good pastor, would teach the person to see the reality of the sin for the good of their soul, but at the same time not rejecting them as a person, and that they need to remove that sin through confession in order to have the personal relationship with Christ.