The document On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, also known by its opening words in Latin (Homosexualitatis problema) or as the "Halloween Letter", was a pastoral letter authored by the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and delivered in Rome on 1 October 1986 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) and Archbishop Alberto Bovone.
[1][2] The letter gave instructions on how the clergy should deal with and respond to lesbian, gay, and bisexual people.
[3] It was designed to correct misunderstandings and misinterpretations of a 1975 CDF letter, Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics (Persona Humana).
What is at all costs to be avoided is the unfounded and demeaning assumption that the sexual behaviour of homosexual persons is always and totally compulsive and therefore inculpable.In the letter the cardinal stated, "Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.
When such a claim is made and when homosexual activity is consequently condoned, or when civil legislation is introduced to protect behaviour to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase.In 2006, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued "Guidelines for Pastoral Care" for those in the Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination.