VATICAN CITY – A leader in the Roman Catholic Church’s efforts to reach out to LGBTQ Catholics revealed on Sunday that Pope Francis sent him a profound message encouraging note ending a particularly puzzling week on the Vatican’s attitude towards gay rights.
On Tuesday, the Vatican confirmed that it had attempted to influence the affairs of the Italian state by expressing serious concerns about legislation currently in parliament that increases protection for LGBTQ people. And days later, the Vatican second-in-command insisted the church had nothing against gay rights, but was protecting itself from leaving the church’s core beliefs open to criminal charges of discrimination. .
Almost eight years after Pope Francis’ famous response: “Who am I to judge? on the issue of homosexual Catholics, it has become increasingly difficult to discern his position on the issue. A growing dissonance developed between its inclusive language and the actions of the church.
The result is confusion and frustration among some of the Pope’s liberal supporters who wonder if the 84-year-old Argentine remains committed to a more tolerant church and is simply trying to grasp the rapidly changing contours of a difficult issue, or if it really is a social problem. conservative trying to please everyone.
What is clear is that the new note will serve as fresh fodder in a battle within the church between frustrated progressives who hope the pope’s inclusive message will finally lead to change and wary conservatives, who hope the he church will maintain its traditions. The Vatican’s own news service later reported that the Pope sent the letter.
In the handwritten letter dated June 21 and made public on Sunday, Francis congratulated and thanked Reverend James Martin, a prominent Jesuit and author of a book on communicating with LGBTQ Catholics.
“I see you continually seek to imitate this style of God,” the Pope wrote. “You are a priest for all men and women, just as God is a Father for all men and women. I pray that you will continue in this way, being close, compassionate and with great tenderness. “
These words will almost certainly bring relief to liberal supporters of Francis, many of whom were deeply disheartened by a March response from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church’s highest doctrinal office, to an inquiry into whether the Catholic clergy have the power to bless gay unions.
“Negative” was the response, which Francis approved.
Two people who support gay rights and are close to the Pope say he told them he gave in to pressure from the congregation, a move he regretted and hoped to rectify. The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the accounts.
But Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who Francis sacked from his post as chief doctrinal watchdog in 2017, said the idea was absurd.
“The Pope is the Pope,” he said, adding that Francis was clearly in charge of these issues.
Cardinal Müller and other prelates say that Francis, on a personal level, just doesn’t like to hurt people’s feelings.
“He wants to be pastoral and he wants to be close to the people. It is his specialty, ”said Cardinal Müller. “It’s easier to be everyone’s darling than to tell the truth,” he added. “He doesn’t like direct confrontation.
Father Martin, who is often attacked by church conservatives, made the letter public after revealing it during a virtual conference for pastors and lay people who administer LGBTQ Catholics.
In the letter, Francis said that the Jesuit priest echoed Jesus in that his teaching was “open to all”. He concludes with the promise to pray for Father Martin’s “flock”.
But this herd has been led back and forth by mixed signals from the Pope over the years.
Francis stunned the faithful and a secular public more accustomed to berating homosexuality and same-sex marriage when journalists asked him questions about a priest who had allegedly been homosexual, he replied: “Who am I to judge? “
Its 2016 landmark family document – titled “The Joy of Love” – rejected same-sex marriage but called on priests to be welcoming to people in non-traditional relationships, such as gay people.
More recently, Francis has expressed his support for same-sex civil unions. His comments did not change the doctrine of the church, but constituted a significant departure from his predecessors.
Francis made the remarks in a 2019 interview with Mexican TV station Televisa, but the Vatican censored the report, and the footage only appeared in an October 2020 documentary.
To the liberals, all of this seemed to create a momentum for real progress for LGBTQ people in the church, which made the Vatican’s March rejection of the same-sex union blessing much harsher.
Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean survivor of sexual and homosexual abuse with whom the Pope befriended, wrote an opinion piece in a Chilean newspaper that criticized the doctrinal watchdog’s rejection of the blessings as insulting for LGBTQ Catholics.
The church’s doctrinal office is headed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria, who has been handpicked by the Pope and is seen to be in sync with him.
In an explanatory note, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated that while welcoming homosexuals, who have the right to be blessed, the church will not bless same-sex unions because God “does not bless and cannot not bless sin “. Benefiting from a same-sex union, he added, could give the impression of putting it on the same level as marriage.
“That would be wrong and misleading,” the note said.
Vatican officials with knowledge of the document said the Pope had at no time opposed the decision and was absolutely clear on matters of Church doctrine.
The decision sparked widespread disappointment, even disgust, among gay Catholics and their supporters.
Liberal Catholics were again disappointed last week when the Vatican confirmed that Holy See Foreign Minister Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher hand delivered a letter to the Italian Ambassador to the Holy See expressing reservations about a bill that would add LGBT provisions to a law that makes discrimination, violence or incitement based on race or religion a crime punishable by up to ‘to four years in prison.
The church intervened early to change the bill because it feared the law would legally require it to perform same-sex marriages or teach more liberal ideas about gender in Catholic schools, according to a church official. .
Alessandro Zan, the sponsor of the bill, said these concerns were strange and not reflected in the legislation.
But the pope clearly approved the intervention, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re told the Roman newspaper Il Messaggero on Thursday.
The reaction was intense and angry from Italians who accused the Vatican of encroaching on the democratic process of the state and from frustrated and confused Catholic homosexuals who once again considered the Pope, despite everything he had said. , as acting against them.
In an apparent effort to limit the damage, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State and second-highest official after the Pope, released a statement Thursday.
He said the Vatican was not seeking to block the legislation but was concerned that the vague wording of the bill and the enormous leeway of Italian judges could lead to charges of criminal discrimination for core church practices. He insisted that hostility towards homosexuals did not motivate the Vatican’s opposition.
“We oppose any behavior or gesture of intolerance or hatred towards people because of their sexual orientation,” he said.
Liberal supporters of Francis argue that letters like the one revealed by Father Martin on Sunday give them space to move forward in their action. But Cardinal Müller said nothing substantial had changed since his departure, and if anything, Francis had grown stronger in his defense of the church’s core beliefs.
“The last signs were a bit significant,” he said.
