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:
must apologise for the pope, time to replace him
You need to read the bible.
Think you should read the Bible, the right answer is there!
May God help you, you have lost your mind ,
Why!!! The Bible says it is an abomination. Leviticus 20:13.
Such a EVIL VILE SATANIC UNGODLY MAN
They should.
And you sir do not know the Bible it clearly states that is sin !!!
Don’t think so
Why doesn’t he stop protecting pedophiles. They should at least pay money to the victims in the victim’s family. About time all churches start paying taxes of all religions ridiculous. A bunch of hypocrites. I heard a lot of priests become priests because they’re gay and they got brought up in a religious family and it’s that pray away the gay thing where they become priests to. Suppress their gay urges or they become priests because they’re attracted to children and they think if there are priests this will oppress the attraction. Religion or religion from the Middle East does not make sense to me. Why did their gods only tell just a few people and those few people told the masses it doesn’t make sense to me it’s more for control all these biblical laws so-called came out around the time of Sodom and Gomorrah and things of that nature I mean those couldn’t be the only two towns that had gambling sex prostitution and all those other things. And if money is evil or they say money is the root of all evil then why does the church ask for it and why can’t they pay their taxes you would think they would want to get rid of it. There’s so much hypocrisy. It’s not funny. I mean when you boil it all down it’s about control. The true religion and true belief system of even all Europeans was that a pagan and Heathen belief systems. How can one religion claim there’s only one God and the other one claim there’s only one God especially in early Christianity they worship multiple gods. Man has changed the Bible so much we’re Bibles of all religions so much it’s not funny. Who the hell is this guy to tell me or anybody else how to live. All Aramaic religion should state in Middle East and that’s it. This is not the religion in the belief system of our European ancestors. And it seems ever since these Middle East religions became mainstream that’s when everything started turning . bad war poverty hatred and racism. And segregation