The gist In an interview on Wednesday, the Pope said that being homosexual was “not a crime”. “It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin,” he continued, adding, “It’s also a sin not to have charity toward others.”
Those who criminalize homosexuality are “in the wrong,” Pope Francis says in a letter published this Saturday, January 28, seeking to clarify previous comments on homosexual acts being considered a sin. In an interview on Wednesday, the pope said that being homosexual was “not a crime”. “It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin,” he continued, adding, “It’s also a sin not to have charity toward others.”
In a letter to American priest James Martin, the Pope points out that these recent comments on homosexuality were intended “to emphasize that criminalization is neither good nor just”. The 86-year-old pope’s letter was in response to the letter from James Martin, who told the Associated Press (AP) agency Wednesday that he asked for clarification. “I want to say that anyone who wants to criminalize homosexuality is wrong,” François writes in this letter, written in Spanish and published on the Outreach website, a Catholic LGBT website edited by James Martin.
Journey of the Pope to Africa
Francis points out that his comments on sin were a reference to moral teaching within the Catholic Church. “When I say it’s a sin, I’m just referring to Catholic moral teaching, which says that any sexual activity outside of marriage is a sin.” “, he adds. “As you can see, I repeated something general. I should have said, ‘It’s a sin, like any sexual act outside of marriage’.”
The comments come days ahead of a trip by the Pope to Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, where criminalization of homosexuality is common. The issue of homosexuality created a huge divide between modernists and conservatives in the Catholic Church. Francis has sparked controversy with his relatively liberal stance on sexual orientation since his appointment as pope in 2013.
Although Francis often received homosexuals and said they should be welcome in the Church, he does not deviate from the line of Catholic teaching on marriage, which is defined as the union between a man and a woman with a view to procreation.