LF: Pope Francis makes groundbreaking apology to gay people and says the Catholic Church must seek forgiveness for the way it treated them in the past

Title: Pope Francis makes groundbreaking apology to gay people and says the Catholic Church must seek forgiveness for the way it treated them in the past
Source: Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... ginalized-deserve-apology.html
Published: Jun 27, 2016
Author: Associated Press and Reuters and Clemenc
Post Date: 2016-06-27 08:59:41 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 956
Comments: 7

Pope Francis said the Catholic Church should apologize to gay people for the way it treated them in the past.

The pontiff made the groundbreaking apology on his way back from Armenia Sunday as he spoke to reporters on his plane.

One of them asked if Francis agreed with one of his top advisers, who said after the Orlando, Florida massacre that the Church should seek forgiveness from gay people for having marginalized them.

Francis recalled Church teachings that homosexuals 'should not be discriminated against' but should be treated with respect and 'accompanied pastorally'.

The Pope looked sad when the reporter asked if an apology was made more urgent by the killing of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando this month.

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, one of the Pope's top advisers, told a conference in Dublin days after the shooting that the Church owed an apology to gay people for having marginalized them.

Francis said Sunday: 'I think that the Church not only should apologize [...] to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologize to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by being forced to work. It must apologize for having blessed so many weapons.'

The Church teaches that homosexual tendencies are not sinful but homosexual acts are, and that homosexuals should try to be chaste.

Francis (pictured with Catholicos Karekin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, as they released white doves on Sunday) said the church should also seek forgiveness from the poor and from exploited people

Francis repeated a slightly modified version of the now-famous 'Who am I to judge?' comment he made about gays on the first foreign trip after his election in 2013.

'The questions is: if a person who has that condition, who has good will, and who looks for God, who are we to judge?' he asked.

The pope did not imply a medical condition but 'a person in that situation', Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

In Italian, the word 'condition' can also mean 'situation'.

'We Christians have to apologize for so many things, not just for this,' Francis added, referring to the treatment of gay people.

'But we must ask for forgiveness, not just apologize! Forgiveness! Lord, it is a word we forget so often!'

Francis has been hailed by many in the gay community for being the most merciful pope towards them in recent history.

Conservative Catholics have criticized him for making comments they say are ambiguous about sexual morality.

The Pope told reporters on the plane 'there are traditions in some countries, some cultures, that have a different mentality about this question' and there are 'some [gay] demonstrations that are too offensive for some'.

But he suggested that those were not grounds for discrimination or marginalization.

The pope did not elaborate on what he meant by seeking forgiveness for the Church 'having blessed so many weapons', but it appeared to be a reference to some Churchmen who actively backed wars in the past.

In other parts of the conversation, Francis said he hoped the European Union would be able to give itself another form after the United Kingdom's decision to leave.

'There is something that is not working in that bulky union, but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water, let's try to jump-start things, to re-create,' he said.

He also denied reports that former Pope Benedict, who resigned in 2013, was still exercising influence inside the Vatican.

'There is only one pope,' he said. He praised Benedict, 89, for 'protecting me, having my back, with his prayers'.

Francis said he had heard that when some Church officials had gone to Benedict to complain that Francis was too liberal, Benedict 'sent them packing'.

The Pope didn't invite Caitlyn Jenner over to the Vatican to use the transgender bathrooms, like The Donald did with Trump Towers.

So he wants to seek forgiveness from the queer population but all the little boys raped by the church preists still deserve protection from prosacution funded by catholic tithes... yaup, these may damn well be the revalation days...

There are three kinds of people in the world: those that can add and those that can't

How has the Church "offended" gays - other than by telling them the truth about the immorality of the perverted acts they favor?

A government strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them.

I agree. I believe the Catholic church and most Christian churches have been faithful in being the "Watchman."

33 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’

7 “So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

10 “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?”’ 11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’