Catholic homosexuals

Mr Joseph Vella wrote that "a prevalent school of psychiatrists still regard homosexuality as an abnormal form of sexual development" (The Sunday Times, December 11).

No recognised national psychiatric body in the developed world supports this view. It is well known that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders way back in 1973. And on May 17, 1990, a major milestone was reached when the World Health Organisation finally followed suit.

The reason why the WHO had taken so long to catch up with medical developments has been attributed to the reticence of the medical representatives from Africa and the Middle East, where the influence of the Catholic Church and Islam is still strong.

There does exist a minor school of rogue psychiatrists in the US that still regards homosexuality as a disorder. Such a school was formed from a group of religiously-inspired psychiatrists who had been expelled from the APA.

This group, which goes by the name of NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) is known to have the tacit support of the Catholic Church and is active in the so-called "ex-gay" ministries, which aim to convert gays into "ex-gays" through a combination of religious indoctrination and pseudo-scientific techniques known as "reparative therapy". The harm caused by such techniques was been highlighted in a press release issued by the APA in 1998.

The existence of such rogue elements does not constitute disharmony within the recognised medical establishment. Nor does it lend any validity to the Church's anachronistic position that homosexuality is an "objective disorder".