Pope on gays : "Who am I to judge?"

[garbon]

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-says-wont-judge-gay-priests-111041448.html

Pope Francis reached out to gays on Monday, saying he wouldn't judge priests for their sexual orientation in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returned from his first foreign trip.

"If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" Francis asked.

His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Francis was much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten.

Francis' remarks came Monday during a plane journey back to the Vatican from his first foreign trip in Brazil.

He was funny and candid during his first news conference that lasted almost an hour and a half. He didn't dodge a single question, even thanking the journalist who raised allegations reported by an Italian newsmagazine that one of his trusted monsignors was involved in a scandalous gay tryst.

Francis said he investigated and found nothing to back up the allegations.

Francis was asked about Italian media reports suggesting that a group within the church tried to blackmail fellow church officials with evidence of their homosexual activities. Italian media reported this year that the allegations contributed to Benedict's decision to resign.

Stressing that Catholic social teaching that calls for homosexuals to be treated with dignity and not marginalized, Francis said it was something else entirely to conspire to use private information for blackmail or to exert pressure.

Francis was responding to reports that a trusted aide was involved in an alleged gay tryst a decade ago. He said he investigated the allegations according to canon law and found nothing to back them up. But he took journalists to task for reporting on the matter, saying the allegations concerned matters of sin, not crimes like sexually abusing children.

And when someone sins and confesses, he said, God not only forgives but forgets.

"We don't have the right to not forget," he said.

The directness of his comments suggested that he wanted to put the matter of the monsignor behind him as he sets about overhauling the Vatican bank and reforming the Holy See bureaucracy.

...

So do we reckon that Marti has taken about going to mass again?

[Ed Anger]

He's in the feet washing line.

[Tamas]

Well, you must give up some ground if you want to keep protecting the pedophiles.

[HVC]

Damn hippie pope.

[CountDeMoney]

Stressing that Catholic social teaching that calls for homosexuals to be treated with dignity and not marginalized, Francis said it was something else entirely to conspire to use private information for blackmail or to exert pressure.

This guy would never cut it as Director, FBI.

[garbon]

Well, you must give up some ground if you want to keep protecting the pedophiles.

But he took journalists to task for reporting on the matter, saying the allegations concerned matters of sin, not crimes like sexually abusing children.

[Tamas]

Anyways, is this matter much? When it comes to debates like gay marriage, the anti-gay crowd always says shit like "I have no problem with them, just don't do it in public" etc.
So it's not like this will convince a single homophob to be accepting.

[garbon]

Anyways, is this matter much? When it comes to debates like gay marriage, the anti-gay crowd always says shit like "I have no problem with them, just don't do it in public" etc.
So it's not like this will convince a single homophob to be accepting.

In itself, probably not. That said still not what I expected to hear out of the pope. I mean I've been wondering who he was to judge anything for a long time.

[Lettow77]

 A powerful answer to "Who am I to judge?" is "Quite literally, the pope, the vicar of Christ, the figurehead of the most prominent Christian organization in the world", but I like this guy anyway.

When is his pronouncement on the Malvinas?

[derspiess]

When is his pronouncement on the Malvinas?

Hopefully never.

[Razgovory]

Anyways, is this matter much? When it comes to debates like gay marriage, the anti-gay crowd always says shit like "I have no problem with them, just don't do it in public" etc.
So it's not like this will convince a single homophob to be accepting.

You mean, like you with Muslims?

[Grallon]

I wonder if the Church will ever revisit its whole stance on sexuality...  Perhaps not with all the 3rd worlders who are now the majority of its adherents....  Still this new Pope is refreshing.



G.

[The Minsky Moment]

I never understood the Benedict position.  Priests are forbidden to engage in any kind of sex, so what difference could their orientation make?

[Valmy]

Anyways, is this matter much? When it comes to debates like gay marriage, the anti-gay crowd always says shit like "I have no problem with them, just don't do it in public" etc.

Dang you have really nice anti-gay types out there if that is the extent of the shit they say.

[derspiess]