Tania Rego / Agencia Brasil 05/08/2020
Pope says church does not reject homosexuals
Pope Francis sent a letter to a Jesuit priest saying the Church does not reject gay Catholics.
James Martin, a member of the Society of Jesus and an adviser to the Vatican’s communications department, had asked the pope what to say to a member of the LGBT+ community who has been “rejected by the church”.
To which the Pope replied in writing: “I would like you to recognize this not as ‘rejection of the Church’ but as ‘people in the Church’. The Church is a mother and calls all her children the righteous, the sinners, the rich and the poor, etc.’ A ‘selective’, ‘pureblood’ church is not a holy mother church but a sect”.
The exchange of messages was disclosed by Martin himself to the Outreach website, which caters to Catholic homosexuals. “I asked three questions and told the Pope that he can be brief if he wants, especially since he suffers from knee pain, and answer as he likes. Three days later I received a handwritten note with his replies,” the Jesuit said.
The priest also asked the pope “what is the most important thing LGBT people should know about God” and “what I would like LGBT people to know about the Church”.
“God is a father and does not deny his children. The ‘style’ of God is closeness, mercy and tenderness. You will find God along the way,” Francis said on the first question.
Regarding the second question, Jorge Bergoglio wrote: “I would like you to read the book of Acts”. “There you will find the picture of the living Church,” he added.
This isn’t the first time the Pope has made candid statements about the LGBT+ community. In May 2018, Francis said the phrase “God loves you so” to a gay man who was a victim of pedophilia in Chile. On another occasion, early in his pontificate, he stated that he could not “judge” people by their sexual orientation.
This more open stance brought Bergoglio strong opposition from the more conservative wings of the church and even accusations of “heresy”.
At the same time, however, Francis has already said that “homosexuality seems to be in vogue” and that he is concerned about its presence among priests and religious. In addition, the Vatican lobbied the Italian parliament to defer a law criminalizing homophobia and transphobia.
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