ASK FR BITAJU | KAIROS GLOBAL | MAY 2021

Author: Fr Bitaju Mathew

Q38. There are entertainment/cookery/travelogue YouTube channels of openly homosexual/ LGBT people. Is it wrong to view these videos? In doing so, are we indirectly promoting the lifestyles of those YouTubers?

Your question seems to probe the morality (good or bad) of watching certain videos and its effect on producers of those videos. I believe, in order to answer your question, it is important to understand the teaching of the Church on ‘morality of human act,’ which would enable you to discern God’s will and design in every choice that would prompt you to action. 

Man is considered as a ‘moral subject’ due to his freedom. When man acts deliberately, he is thought to be the father of his acts.  Human acts that are freely chosen can morally be evaluated (CCC 1749). The condition of being good or bad is the ‘morality’ of a human act. An act is considered ‘good’ or ‘bad’ based on whether or not it leads man to his last end, God, and thus to his happiness. 

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, ‘the object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the “sources,” or constitutive elements, of the morality of human acts’ (CCC 1750).  ‘Primarily and fundamentally the morality of the human act depends on the “object” rationally chosen by the deliberate will’ (Veritatis Splendor, 78).  The object of human act may be good (alms giving), bad (lying), or indifferent (going for a walk). The second essential source of morality is intention, which is ‘a movement of the will toward the end: it is concerned with the goal or purpose pursued in the action’ {e.g. giving a gift (object) in order to bribe an official (intention)} (CCC 1752). Circumstances ‘are secondary elements of a moral act.  They contribute to increasing or decreasing the moral goodness or evil of human acts (e.g. the amount of a theft). They can also decrease or increase the agent’s responsibility (such as acting out of fear of death)’ (CCC 1754). 

Applying this teaching on the morality of human act, following questions could be used for a soul-searching of the act of watching those seemingly harmless videos, and thus determine the morality (good or bad) of the act.  

• What is the purpose or end (intention) of watching such videos of this particular YouTube channel (object)?

• Does my subscription or viewing of such videos in any way promote the lifestyle of the producer and what are its consequences?

• Do I not have other options of gaining similar knowledge or fun through other channels?

• Does this act lead me closer to God and thus to my happiness?

I believe it is important that one learns to discern in accordance with the teaching of the Church and one’s conscience what God wants him/ her in choosing to do such or similar acts, rather than merely looking for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.  Though, it can be demanding and at times really challenging, taking responsibility for one’s act by deliberate choice, one advances in Christian maturity. 

YOUCAT 289 

Must we allow a person to use his free will, even when he decides in favour of evil? 

For a person to be able to use his freedom is a fundamental right based on his human dignity. An individual’s freedom can be curtailed only if the exercise of his freedom is detrimental to the freedom of others. [1738, 1740] 

Freedom would be no freedom at all if it were not the freedom to choose even what is wrong. It would violate the dignity of a man if we did not respect his freedom. One of the central duties of the State is to protect the liberties of all its citizens (freedom of religion, of assembly, and association, freedom of opinion, freedom to choose one’s occupation, and so on). The freedom of one citizen is the limit to the freedom of another.

The martyrs of the early Church died for their faith in that God who was revealed in Jesus Christ, and for this very reason they also died for freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess one’s own faith—a profession that no State can impose but which, instead, can only be claimed with God’s grace in freedom of conscience. A missionary Church known for proclaiming her message to all peoples must necessarily work for the freedom of the faith.

POPE BENEDICT XVI, December 22, 2005