Pope Francis made some sweeping and one might say presumptuous statements this past Sunday which have caused more traditional Catholics to wonder whether their church will survive the often off-the-cuff remarks of the pontiff.
Following the lead of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who seemed to be testing the waters for a statement on LGBT relations with the church and beyond, the Pope made the following observations:
“I repeat what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: that they must not be discriminated against, that they must be respected and accompanied pastorally,” Francis said at a press conference aboard the papal plane returning from Armenia.
“The Church must ask forgiveness for not behaving many times — when I say the Church, I mean Christians! The Church is holy, we are sinners!”
“I believe that the church not only should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended,” he added, “but has to apologize to the poor, to exploited women, to children exploited for labor; it has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons.”
Francis first uttered that rhetorical question — Who am I to judge gay people? — in 2013, also during a news conference on the papal plane. His comments were hailed as a breakthrough for a church that has historically condemned homosexuality, often in harsh terms. Francis has not changed church doctrine that calls homosexual acts sinful, but he has shown a more merciful approach to people on the margins, including gays and lesbians.
A leading cardinal of the Catholic Church, one who is part of a council to help advise Pope Francis, preceded the pontiffs remarks at a different venue, saying that the church should apologize to gays and lesbians for the “scandalous and terrible treatment” inflicted on them for many years by the church and its members. Cardinal Reinhard Marx stated that “the history of homosexuals in our societies is very bad because we’ve done a lot to marginalize [them].”
It is worth wondering if the social changes in society and the drifting of membership has caused a new perspective in the church.
Cardinals comments question Church position on gays and lesbians, page 2:
This pope is nuts…he is starting to sound like Hillary… next he will ask for reparations from us for blacks!!
Hey pontiff, how about, hate the sin and love the sinner?! I think a refresher course might be needed for ya!
Are you out of mind pope? Your a crazy and working hard to please your master the SATAN, deceiving the innocent people to hell, you must be exposed to all the Catholic, people don’t take it pope’s words! And read the BIBLE for yourself, than you’ll know the pope is the false prophet!
Not my pope
That is like telling God to apologize for writing The Ten Commandments. The Pope is a man. He is not Jesus Christ and he is not perfect. If he is supposed to be representing God then he needs to go back to seminary and learn the truth about God’s word. God said what He said and will not change His mind. And the Pope does not have the authority to change what God has said. To add to or to take from His Word is walking on dangerous ground. At the rate the Pope is going I am curious as to how long it will be before he says that abortion is OK.
Wait until you have to apologize to God for destroying His Word.
Hell bound on a fast train. I will put him on my prayer list.
Satan’s spawn
Senile socialist liberal Pope. He’s got to go!
Bet U have never read the Bible❗️