Q: How would you define the Courage apostolate?
Father Harvey: A brief definition of Courage would be, simply, a spiritual support system for men and women with same-sex attraction who desire to live a chaste life. It involves both confidentially and anonymity. The members only go by their first name and they are bound to confidentiality at their meetings. In other words, confidentially is very strict.

Q: How would you describe the condition of homosexuality?
Father Harvey: The condition is that a man or a woman lacks the attraction to people of the other sex. We call that an objective disorder. It is an objective disorder because if you give consent to this disorder you end up performing an intrinsically evil act. Namely, the act of homosexual behavior, same-sex behavior. It’s always wrong because it can never lead to the purposes of sex. The only natural desire is the man having an attraction for a woman, which, eventually, through the process of selection, friendship and marriage leads to the accomplishment and goals that God had in mind in the community of man and body — that is, one flesh. From that communion should come children and family for the continuation of the generations of the human race. But this inclination to the same sex doesn’t go anywhere. You don’t need revelation to prove homosexuality immoral. If those two purposes of communion of bodies in love and children are not accomplished, the act is evil. It’s not doing what the Lord wanted us to.

Q: What do you think is the main challenge for Catholics with same-sex attractions?
Father Harvey: The main challenge for Catholics with same-sex attractions is to find a way to overcome it and to find ways in which you can learn to give your life to Christ and God and to fill all kinds of good purposes in the world or in religious life.
I know somebody in his 80s now and he’s not bothered by this presence at all. I used to see him every week for 30 years. He leads a beautiful life of prayer; he’s a third order Carmelite. He counsels people with homosexual tendencies and helps them to be chaste. He changed his life around. He left his partner and I began counseling him every week for a half hour. From 30 years of experience with him I wrote an article for a Catholic magazine. They made a pamphlet out of it. So the answer to the question is, simply, learn how to get back to Christ, how to lead a good life without marriage — how to train yourself to be a celibate person and lead a good life.

Q: Explain how the current culture and the strong gay lobby aimed at legalizing so-called same-sex marriage affects your ministry.
Father Harvey: Well, I’m writing a book on that. It’s coming out next March. It’s called “The Church and Homosexuality.” One of the chapters is about gay marriage. First of all, it’s not a marriage. A marriage has always been between a man and a woman. The president of the United States said that very beautifully. Two people of the same sex can’t be married. It’s impossible — just impossible. Because marriage, for thousands of years, has been defined as a relation between a man and a woman. Every culture accepts that. It has for generation after generation since Adam and Eve. The truth of the matter is we have no basic code of morality in our country. We have what is known as relativism, which means that whatever I think makes sense — in other words, human beings make up the new moral law. Adam and Eve tried to do that — the knowledge of right and wrong. They didn’t succeed. The result was original sin.