Pope Francis shakes Vatican policy with new attitude towards gays

Tuesday, October 14th 2014 - 05:53 UTC

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“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” said Pope Francis recently speaking with journalists

The Vatican has taken strides in announcing a new change in views towards homosexuals, which according to a Vatican document drafted after a week-long discussion of 200 bishops on family issues, states that homosexuals have “gifts and qualities to offer.”

“Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community: are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a further space in our communities? Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home,” said the document. “Are our communities capable of proving that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?”

That said, the Catholic Church isn't giving its wholesome blessing to homosexuals, but instead, is promoting discourse within the Church to find “a fraternal space” for them without straying from the Catholic doctrine. But this step is a significant one, considering that it is suggesting that the Church is softening on its stance against homosexuality.

“For the LGBT Catholics in the United States and around the world, this new document is a light in the darkness — a dramatic new tone from a church hierarchy that has long denied the very existence of committed and loving gay and lesbian partnerships,” said Chad Griffin, president of Human Rights Campaign, the biggest LGBT rights organization in the U.S.

The Argentine pontiff has previously vocalized his more compassionate views towards the LGBT community.

“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” said Pope Francis in a news conference aboard the papal plane while traveling back to Rome for World Youth Day. ”There's a lot of talk about the gay lobby, but I've never seen it on the Vatican ID card! When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby. If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them? They shouldn't be marginalized. The tendency (to homosexuality) is not the problem ... they're our brothers.“

”A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality,“ said Pope Francis to Jesuit priest Fr. Antonio Spadaro, who conducted the interview for La Civilta Cattolica. ”I replied with another question: 'Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?' We must always consider the person.“ He also expanded on the role of women in the interview. ”The feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions. The challenge today is this: to think about the specific place of women also in those places where the authority of the church is exercised.”

Categories: Politics, International.

Tags: Catholic Church, gays, homosexuals, Pope Francis, Vatican.

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C. Lee
On the Pope's comment on gays, please allow Pope Francis know about the public's beliefs on his certain stance as follow:
I disagree on the Pope's expression on the above-said matter. Using words such as 'gifts' and 'qualities' are improper and sound ridiculous to me. The Pope is condoning to them by lowering the qualities of our Catholic faith.
Of course we do not punish, judge or refuse any persons who wants to come to church but like the liturgies of these few days: we don't just come to church (out of the closets) to claim our spotlights without changing our lives according to what Jesus teaches in the Holy Gospels and to make worthy ourselves of God's Graces.
Jesus invites all to the Holy Banquet but He casts out those who are not properly prepared nor have knowledge of what going to God mean! That's this week's homilies about.
To me the Pope just give the gays a laud afraid they run away without giving him contributions - that's a very bad example of a speech from the Holy See!
Please Pope Francis: read this week's Holy Gospels outlined in the Liturgies and watch the reflection video everyday even you yourself are teaching them also.
One could never be too careful in checking oneself whether one has taken one's knowledge for granted since one has reached a high position of one's career.
Oct 14th, 2014 - 05:00 pm 0
toooldtodieyoung
1 C. Lee

Your post is offensive and the ideas expressed in it are as outdated as the Catholic faith itself.

By all means go and speak with your imaginary friend ( or “god” as you call him ) It is your right to believe in what ever it is that you wish to believe in but please know that you are wrong.

I find the catholic faith to be just as homophobic and woman hating as Islam. The “Holy Gospels” are just a means by which the leaders of the church control and subjugate women. This only serves to prove that the pope is just as out of touch with the real world as any politician.

It is my sincerest wish that this bunch child molesters is thrown in jail for the rest of their worthless lives.
Oct 14th, 2014 - 08:36 pm 0
ChrisR
@ 1 C - NOT (do you get it?)

There is no god, it's a failing within the brain of some humans that they are afraid to be alone in the universe: there must be something or somebody to 'save us'.

Well grow up and grasp life for as long as you live, because when you die that's it. NADA, nothing other than your dust waiting for the Red Giant phase of our Sun to envelope the Earth and convert everything back to stardust which is where we all came from. The wait will be about 4 billion years and you will never feel a thing, so don’t worry.

Anyway the RCC knows ALL about paedophiles who some stupid people think are homosexuals: NO, they are god-damned sexual perverts (if god did exist he / she would surely damn them). These ‘kiddie fiddlers’ still live within the RCC and are still protected, but the new Pope is slowly catching up with them and out they will go, together with the Bishop who has protected them for so long.

The thing you are basing this diatribe on is nothing but a collection of folk tales, written by people who never experienced any of what they are writing about and given ‘credence’ by naming it the Bible.

Try reading The Dandy (it’s a funny comoc) and get yourself a few laughs, it will do you more good than worrying about a load of rubbish written in a medieval ‘book’.
Oct 14th, 2014 - 08:39 pm 0

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