Pope Francis: "Being homosexual is not a crime"

Pope Francis has criticized laws that criminalize gay people as "unjust," stressing that God loves all his children just as they are and calling on Catholic bishops who still support these laws to welcome the LGBTI community into the Church.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
30 January 2023 Monday 05:54
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Pope Francis: "Being homosexual is not a crime"

Pope Francis has criticized laws that criminalize gay people as "unjust," stressing that God loves all his children just as they are and calling on Catholic bishops who still support these laws to welcome the LGBTI community into the Church. . "Being homosexual is not a crime," he pointed out in an interview with the US agency Ap released this Wednesday.

“It is not a crime. Yes, but it's a sin. Well, first let's distinguish sin from crime. But lack of charity towards one's neighbor is also a sin," said the Pontiff, who also warned that the bishops, in particular, must carry out a process of change to recognize the dignity of all. "The bishop also has a conversion process," he explained, adding that they should show "tenderness, please, tenderness, as God has with each one of us."

Since his famous statement in 2013, when he said "who am I to judge?", Francis has reached out to the LGBTI community on several occasions, one of the features of his pontificate. The Argentine pope has always said that homosexuals must be accepted by their families. On his trip to Ireland in August 2018, when asked what he would say to the parents of a homosexual son, he replied that ignoring him would be "a lack of maternity and paternity." He has also advocated for civil unions for gay people. For example, on the plane back from his visit to Slovakia, when he reiterated that they should be "helped" but "without imposing things on the Church that by their nature cannot be imposed."

The doctrine of the Catholic Church does not accept marriage between people of the same sex, something with which the Pontiff has always agreed. In 2021, the Vatican remarked that the Catholic Church cannot bless people of the same sex, in what was a huge jug of cold water for some priests in countries like the US or Germany who had begun to bless people. these couples.

In the interview, Francis also addressed the conjectures that have been raised in the Vatican after the death of Benedict XVI, which clears the way for a future long-term resignation from him. If the management of two pontiffs was already complicated, three would have been inconceivable. Now this obstacle no longer exists. Although he repeated that he does not rule out following the path of his predecessor and stepping back, he stressed that he will continue to lead the Church as long as he can. “It didn't even occur to me to make a will about myself,” he said.

"I'm healthy. Because of my age, I am normal, ”the 86-year-old Jesuit pope assured Tuesday, although he indicated that diverticulosis, the bags that form in the wall of the intestine, had“ returned ”. In 2021, 13 inches of his large intestine was removed because of what the Vatican described as inflammation caused by a narrowing of the colon. He also revealed that he had healed a small fracture in a fall without surgery, with laser treatment and magnetic therapy. “I can die tomorrow, but come on, he is controlled. I'm in good health, ”he qualified, with his usual irony.

In some circles of the Holy See, there is a debate about whether, after Benedict's death, it is time to regulate the institution of the emeritus papacy to avoid some of the controversies of recent years, when Ratzinger was instrumentalized by some ultra-conservative sectors to oppose Bergoglio. Asked about this, the Pontiff said that it is something that has not occurred to him, because he believes that the Vatican needs more experience with retired popes to "regulate more or regulate more."

In addition, he insisted that, if he resigned, he would carry the position of bishop emeritus of Rome - and not pope emeritus, as his predecessor did - and would live in the residence for retired priests in the diocese of Rome, instead of in a monastery. inside the Vatican gardens. “He was still a slave, in quotes, of a pope, right? –Francisco opined– From the vision of a pope, of a system. Slave in the good sense of the word. In which he was not completely free, as perhaps he would have wanted to return to his Germany and continue studying theology from there ”.

Ratzigner's death has also uncovered a deep wave of criticism of his pontificate by some cardinals and bishops, beginning with the controversial book by Benedict's private secretary, Georg Gänswein, or the statements by German cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who believes that Bergoglio is surrounded by a "magic circle" without theological preparation that advises him on decisions.

“One prefers there not to be. For peace of mind, go," said the Pope, defining these criticisms as "urticaria, which bothers a little." "But I prefer that they do them, because that means that there is freedom to speak," he added. If this is not the case, a dictatorship of the distance is engendered, which I call it, where the emperor is there and nobody can say anything to him. No, let them say, because the company, the criticism, help to grow and things to go well ”.