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The pope’s statements please liberals and upset conservatives. According to experts, they are not an opening towards marriage for homosexuals.
ROM. There were only a few words, and they weren’t even said in an official context. But they went around the world in a very short time: “Homosexuals have the right to a family. They are children of God, ”Pope Francis says in Russian director Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary” Francesco, “which premiered this week.
For many, these statements amount to a revolution: the Catholic Catechism says that “homosexual acts are inherently out of order.” A 2003 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith emphasizes that “legal recognition of same-sex relationships or their equality with marriage” must be challenged.
In the film, however, the pontiff says: No one should be marginalized or unhappy. And: “We have to create a civil society law. This means that homosexuals are legally protected. I defended him ”. The reason for these statements is a moving phone call between the Pope and a gay couple with three children, which the film documents. The couple had written to the Pope describing how embarrassed they felt to accompany their children to church. “Bring your children to church regardless of prejudice,” Francis tells parents.
“Not surprising position”
Also present at the presentation of the film in Rome was a victim of sexual abuse and gay rights activist, Juan Carlos Cruz, who had been received by the Pope. “The Pope told me what happened to me, he is very sorry.”
The Pope’s statements provoked jubilation, protest and confusion. Gay activists celebrated this as recognition, conservative clerics demanded clarification, and representatives of the liberal church felt they were confirmed.
The Bishop of Innsbruck, Hermann Glettler, was delighted with “this necessary and welcome request. It has been implemented for a long time in Austria, but by no means in all countries of the world, ”he told Kathpress. Glettler is responsible for the “Marriage and Family” section at the Austrian Episcopal Conference. American Jesuit and theologian James Martin, an advocate for a better relationship between homosexuals and the Church, welcomed the Pope’s statement “as an important step in the Church’s support for LGBT people.” LGBT is an abbreviation in English for homosexual, bisexual and transgender. If the Pope speaks positively about civil associations, it is a “strong message to the places where the Church has spoken out against such laws,” Martin said.
The conservative bishop of Providence in the United States, Thomas Tobin, instead, asks for a “clarification.” The church could not accept the acceptance of such “objectively immoral relationships.”
However, Monsignor Marcello Semeraro, recently appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, asks for caution with the interpretations: the Pope’s statements “are not an opening towards homosexual marriage,” he told the newspaper “La Repubblica.” Catholic marriage as a sacrament goes “beyond a legal contract.”
The Pope’s biographer, Austen Ivereigh, also told the BBC that he was “not surprised” by the Pope’s remarks. “That was his position as archbishop of Buenos Aires.” At the time, Francis had spoken out in favor of greater respect for homosexuals, but said the church’s attitude had not changed. And in 2013 he emphasized: “If a person is homosexual and seeks God and has good will, who am I to be able to judge?” (Enough.)
(“Die Presse”, print edition, 23.10.2020)
