Category: Catholic Church

New Pope’s Previous Stand on Gay Marriage and Adoption

A new Pope has been elected, who will stand as the 266th Pope, and will take the name Pope Francis. He’s a Jesuit, the first Latin American Pope, and he’s from Buenos Aires.

During various interviews this week I’ve watched people in the US express what they’d like to see in a new Pope. One of the most popular wishes was that he bring people together. The other was that he reform some of the pasts rules and regulations. Most people when asked were not hesitant to mention things like birth control, the church’s stand on gay marriage, and divorce. For those who don’t know, the Catholic Church only believes in sex as procreation, they oppose gay marriage in any way, shape, or form, and if you are Catholic (straight) and you get a legal divorce you are excommunicated from the church unless you get a Papal annulment. Getting one of those is about as simple and as realistic as the outfit the Pope wears.

I don’t know how the new Pope feels about all of these things, and more, and I do know that he has to remain true to the doctrine of the church first and foremost. I may respect it, but I don’t have to believe it. Here’s his past stand on contraception, gay marriage and gay adoption:

Amid changing mores on sexuality, including same-sex marriage, Francis’ traditional views have clashed with cultural changes in Argentina. Before the nation legalized same-sex marriage in 2010, Francis called it a “destructive attack on God’s plan.”

At the same time, the new pope is expected to uphold church orthodoxy on sexuality, abortion, marriage and contraception. The same year he said same-sex marriage attacks God’s plan, he also said gay people adopting children is an act of discrimination against children.

The last line is interesting, considering the child abuse scandal within the church, not to mention the cover up and all the Catholic Priests who have been prosecuted and handed sentences that often include prison time. Or, or the millions of dollars they’ve paid in civil law suits. It not only shows how out of touch the man is with respect to the topic, but how disconnected the entire church is with the realities of discrimination and life in general. The acts that children have suffered through the discriminatory practices of the church will go down in the history of the world as an abomination.

Whether or not Pope Francis will change his opinions on these issues remains to be seen. I don’t have high hopes. Nowadays as more gay people let go of the shame they’ve been taught thanks to institutions like the Catholic Church, their straight friends, relatives, and co-workers are also letting go of the shame. So it’s not just about gay people anymore. It’s about the gay nephew, grandson, son, daughter, neighbor, doctor, and so on and so on…

Interesting: Pope Comments on Gay Marriage

I don’t usually comment on these things. I just post them.

But considering that I know for a fact that there are more than one, two, or even three gay priests, I do find this interesting.

I would like to think that The Pope would be more focused on straightening out the problems within his own church instead of bashing the world. Especially with all the Catholic churches closing down in the US and so many good people leaving the church to practice their faith elsewhere. If you read the article, you’ll see there are more people leaving the church in Germany, too. I didn’t know this.

Things like this just fall under the category of “I don’t get this and I’m tired of trying.”

Catholics cannot accept gay marriage, pope says
24 Sep 2011 19:05

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Pope visits mostly Catholic Freiburg on last leg of tour

* Says dictatorships were “acid rain” for faith

* Incident as man shoots air gun to protest tight security (Updates with youth rally, meeting with Orthodox)

By Philip Pullella and Sarah Marsh

FREIBURG, Germany, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Pope Benedict said on Saturday the Catholic Church could not accept gay marriage and urged young people to root out evil in society and shun a “lukewarm” faith that damages their Church.

The 84-year-old pope ended the third day in his homeland with a rally for more about 30,000 young people at a fairground outside the southern city of Freiburg, a Catholic area where he received the warmest welcome of his trip so far.

“The world in which we live, in spite of its technical progress, does not seem to be getting any better,” he told the young people. “There is still war and terror, hunger and disease, bitter poverty and merciless oppression.”

He urged them to root out all forms of evil in society and not to be “lukewarm Christians,” saying that lack of commitment to faith did more damage to their Church than its sworn enemies.

Young people in the crowd cheered as he spoke.

“The Church is shown very negatively in the media these days so it is important for us young people to see we can also be proud of the Church, and the Church itself is not bad even if some people have let it down,” said Kathrin Doerr, 26, who attended the youth rally.

Earlier, at a meeting with Orthodox Christian leaders, Benedict spoke out against abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage.

“We as Christians attach great importance to defending the integrity and the uniqueness of marriage between one man and one woman from any kind of misinterpretation,” he said.

COMMUNISM’S ACID RAIN HURT FAITH

On the penultimate day of his trip, the pope straddled his homeland’s religious and geographical divisions, praising the faithful for enduring communism’s “acid rain” effect in former East Germany and then addressing cheering Catholic crowds in the west.

At a mass in the medieval main square during a subdued visit to the city of Erfurt, where only about seven percent of the people are Catholic, he praised eastern Germans who stayed loyal to the Church during oppressive years under Nazism and communism.

“You have had to endure first a brown and then a red dictatorship, which acted on the Christian faith like acid rain,” he told the crowd from the altar, set against a hill dominated by Erfurt’s cathedral and another Catholic church.

About two hours before the morning mass in Erfurt, a man fired an air gun at security staff at an Erfurt checkpoint in an apparent protest against the strict crowd-control measures, police said. The Vatican said the pope was never in any danger.

Benedict held a surprise meeting on Friday evening in Erfurt with victims of sexual abuse by priests. Church officials said on Saturday there were three men and two women present, chosen from many victims around Germany who had asked to meet the pope.

“The atmosphere of the meeting was rather relaxed,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told a news conference. “It was very important that the Pope expressed he shares in the pain the victims suffered and that the Church will do everything to prevent that happening again in the future.”

About 700 Germans have filed for compensation for abuse by priests and other Church personnel. A record 181,000 Germans left the Church last year, many in protest at the abuse scandal. (Writing by Philip Pullella and Tom Heneghan; Editing by Tim Pearce)