My news feed this morning exploded with information, disinformation, and commentary on Pope Francis' remarks about homosexuality. After I posted the same thought four or five times, I decided I had better write about it. The Atlantic published my short essay this afternoon.
Here's the meat (without links)
As has been widely reported, he said (in Italian), "Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord?" He noted that the problem with the "gay lobby," if it exists, is not that these people are gay, but that they are a lobby (i.e. that the Vatican is a tangled web of pressure groups and rivalries). Finally, he chided the press for focusing on the alleged homosexual acts of Ricca, distinguishing them from the criminal matters like sexual predation on children. Criminals should be punished, but if Ricca sinned, then confessed, he must be forgiven. "When the Lord forgives," the Pope said, "the Lord forgets."
Francis did not just normalize Catholic perceptions on homosexuality; nor did he address the theological position on sex outside of procreative intercourse between married men and women. In reality, the only concrete matter he touched on was priests who are homosexual but celibate. Under Pope Benedict, as of 2005, Bishops were directed to treat homosexual candidates for the clergy with suspicion, denying a haven to gay Catholics seeking a religious life. But Francis seems to be suggesting that homosexuals are no more likely to betray their vows of celibacy than heterosexuals. That may have concrete policy implications within the seminary, as well it should.
But the potential in these remarks is striking. If orientation does not convey a pre-emptive judgment in the eyes of the Pope, then it becomes more difficult for Illinois Bishop Thomas Paprocki to call homosexuality "an intrinsic evil." It becomes more difficult for Catholic organizations to fire employees for being gay or to force them to choose between their work and their identity, as recently happened in Minnesota. Francis' impromptu remarks on the plane suggest a small, mild step towards equality.
Is this real equality yet? No.
Does it absolve the Church of its crimes? No.
But there's something powerful going on here under Pope Francis. I can't stop watching and hoping.
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