Catholic change of heart?
Reconciliation between Churches and the LGBTQ community is far from complete. It is something that never should have happened in the first place but did as ignorance and backward thinking influenced those that followed “God’s will”. But it is one thing to fear what you do not understand and another to actively work to end human lives because you disagree with the lifestyle of someone else. 70 countries consider same-sex relationships a crime. Many of these countries punish these relationships by death.
But in the dark storm, a tiny shaft of light appeared from none other than the Catholic Church. Pope Francis has recently come out publicly to say that “laws criminalizing homosexuality are unjust.” He called it a sin for Catholics but not a crime. He even went on to say that the church should work to end laws criminalizing homosexuality. What an incredibly human thing to do!
Many catholic bishops around the world support laws criminalizing homosexuality and discriminating against LGBTQ people. To this Pope Francis said, “We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity.”
Pope Francis went on to say that people should never condemn their children if they are gay. “It is also a sin to lack charity with one another.” But as a sin, the church is unable to bless gay marriage as it cannot bless a sin. This is still not where we want to be but at least it is a step in the right direction. Perhaps in the future, churches will recognize everyone as human beings first and by sexual orientation second. How many priests have been guilty of molesting children? For years they simply ignored the problem and just transferred these priests to new parishes. Who are they to judge sin?
Francis DeBernardo, who is the Executive Director of New Ways Ministry a LGBTQ centered Catholic Group in a statement to USA today:
“The Pope is reminding the Church that the way people treat one another in the social world is of much greater moral importance (than) what people may possibly do in the privacy of a bedroom.”
And this flows to my point all along. Can you imagine if you started dictating laws to straight couples based on what they do or don’t do in the bedroom? What if they might be punished by death because of these practices? Let’s see how that goes over. My last question is who decided that members of the LGBTQ community were not allowed to part of the human race? Certainly not God.
