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How can the Church call homosexuality unnatural when animals show homosexual behavior?

Moral Life

The short answer

Natural law applies to creatures that can reason: as Aquinas says, it is the rational creature's participation in the eternal law. Animal behavior is no guide — many animals also eat their young.

Natural law is for rational creatures

Natural law pertains to beings who can reason. The Catholic Encyclopedia quotes Aquinas: natural law is nothing other than the rational creature's participation in the eternal law.

Animals are no standard

Remember that many animals also eat their young.