➤ POPE FRANCIS, from p.24
would not be a long stretch for him
to do so.”
DignityUSA, another group for
LGBTQ Catholics, characterized
Francis’ comments as “cautiously
optimistic” and its executive director
encouraged him to embrace full
marriage equality.
“If true, the Pope’s comments
could represent an international
game-changer and a major step
forward for LGBTQI equality,” DignityUSA
executive director Marianne
Duddy-Burke said in a written
statement. “While pleased by
the news reports, we wonder how
the Pope’s comments fi t with existing
Catholic teachings that condemn
same-sex relationships as
‘intrinsically evil.’ We hope that
Pope Francis will take steps to enshrine
support for same-sex couples,
LGBTQI individuals, and our
families in offi cial Catholic teachings
and will work to formally end
Catholic teachings that are hurtful
to LGBTQI people.”
Freedom to Marry founder Evan
Wolfson, who has played a leading
role in advocating for marriage
equality in the United States
and around the world, said it was
“heartening” to see Francis’ comments
about civil unions and legal
protections for same-sex couples.
“The Pope’s strong stand shows
the progress we have made in helping
non-gay people of good will understand
who gay and trans people
are, why marriage matters to our
families, and shared values of love,
respect, dignity, inclusion, and empathy,”
Wolfson told Gay City News
in a written statement. “Of course,
to be clear, marriage is, under law,
a civil union, while separate ‘civil
unions’ under a separate regime
are not marriage. When it comes to
the right to marry, as distinct from
religious rites, the law should treat
all loving and committed couples
equally. It’s time for the freedom to
marry under the law for all couples
in all countries.”
Francis’ comments were well-received
by Aaron Bianco, an out gay
professor of theology at the University
of San Diego who was once
forced to resign from his post as
a pastoral associate at a Catholic
Church in San Diego after he faced
a barrage of homophobic attacks
from anti-LGBTQ news sites.
“Pope Francis once again is
Pope Francis’ relative openness to the LGBTQ community is a departure from the hard-line approach of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.
showing that the heart of the
Church must be welcoming,” Bianco
said in a written statement.
“It is a colossal step for the pontiff
to endorse civil unions. In doing
so, he shows that he, and in turn,
the Church, are looking for ways to
be a welcoming place for all LGBT
Catholics. All Catholics should applaud
this advancement.”
The pope’s comments are yet
another example of a gradual shift
in the Catholic Church’s attitude
toward LGBTQ folks under Francis,
who has, on several occasions,
turned heads with his willingness
to reach out to the LGBTQ community.
At the same time, while
he has also previously voiced comments
saying he would not judge
queer folks, he has also expressed
that the idea of gay priests “worries
me” and described being gay
as “fashionable” and “a very serious
matter.” And his occasional
comments on transgender people
have stung.
Still, in a church that has historically
offered very little opportunity
for progress on LGBTQ
rights, Francis has been viewed as
a leader with a surprisingly open
mind on such issues — especially
in comparison to his predecessor,
Pope Benedict XVI, who blasted
same-sex marriage, abortion, and
assisted reproduction in an interview
earlier this year during which
he complained about cultural
shifts on same-sex marriage.
Decades before he ascended to
the papacy in 2005, Benedict, formerly
known as Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, authored a letter titled
“The Pastoral Care of Homosexuals”
in which he said gay people’s
inclinations are not sinful, but “it
is a more or less strong tendency
PHOTO REUTERS/ OSSERVATORE ROMANO
ordered toward an intrinsic moral
evil and thus the inclination itself
must be seen as an objective disorder.”
A lesbian group at Manhattan’s
St. Francis Xavier Church did not
respond to a request for comment.
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