The Rite of Sodomy Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church
St. Peter Damian and the Vice of Sodomy
St. Peter Damien (1007-1072) Abbot of the Fonte Avellana Monastery and the Cardinal/Bishop of Ostia, is considered one of the stellar advocates of Catholic reform in the XI century. His Liber Gomorrhianus, circa 1049, ias written because corruption was widely spread, particularly in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. In this work, which was addressed to Pope Leo IX, St. Peter Damien condemns the perversion and degradation of the unnatural vice of sodomy occurring in his time in a language without nuance, compromise or excuses, because he was convinced that of all the sins, the gravest is sodomy, that is, including all the acts against nature and which want to satisfy sexual pleasure by separating it from procreation. “If this absolutely ignominious and abominable vice is not immediately stopped with an iron fist" he wrote, "the sword of Divine wrath will fall upon us, bringing ruin to many.”