Pope Francis condemned “unjust” laws that criminalize homosexuality in an interview with The Associated Press that was published on Wednesday, adding that the Roman Catholic Church should do more to put an end to such legislation and that bishops should welcome L.G.B.T.Q. people into the church, especially in those countries where such laws exist.
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“Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” Francis said in the interview, adding that God loved all his children just as they are. He also called on bishops who support laws that punish or discriminate against the L.G.B.T.Q. community, which exist in more than five dozen countries worldwide, to undergo a “process of conversion” and instead apply “tenderness,” he said, “as God has for each one of us.”
Francis quoted the catechism of the church, which teaches that L.G.B.T.Q. people should not be marginalized but instead welcomed. But he also made clear that he stood by Catholic teaching which believes that homosexual acts, which the Catholic Church considers “intrinsically disordered,” were a sin.
“It’s not a crime,” Francis said of homosexuality during the 75-minute interview conducted on Tuesday in Santa Marta, the Vatican hotel he calls home, and even though the Church might consider certain relations a sin, he added, “first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime”
“It’s also a sin to lack charity with one another,” Francis added.
The pope has made outreach to the L.G.B.T.Q. community one of the pillars of his papacy. Only a few months after his election in 2013, he famously said, “Who am I to judge?” when asked during a papal flight from Brazil about priests who might be gay. In a 2020 documentary, he appeared to endorse same-sex civil unions. The Vatican later clarified that the pope believed that gay couples deserved civil protections, including legal rights and health care benefits, but that his comments had not marked a change in church doctrine.
In 2021, many in the L.G.B.T.Q. community took Francis to task for a ruling issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith banning priests from blessing same-sex unions, calling any such blessing “not licit.” The ruling had been issued in response to questions from some pastors and parishes that sought to be more welcoming and inclusive of gay couples.
Francis addressed a wide range of issues in the interview, from the diplomatic relations between the Vatican and China (“the main thing, the dialogue doesn’t break”) to the use of guns by civilians for self-defense in the United States after the mass shootings in California of recent days (it “becomes a habit,” Francis said. “Instead of making the effort to help us live, we make the effort to help us kill.”)
Asked about his health, the 86 year old pontiff said he was in “good health” which remained “under control.” But he also revealed that diverticulosis, a condition in the sigmoid colon in which saclike bulges on the colon walls become repeatedly inflamed or infected, had “returned.” Francis had surgery in 2021 to remove a section of his colon because of diverticulosis.
In recent years, Francis’ health has caused intermittent concern. Last summer, he postponed a challenging trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan (which he will make next week) because of problems with his right knee. He told the Associated Press that a slight bone fracture in his knee had healed without recourse to surgery after laser and magnet therapy.
The pope also has problems with sciatica, a chronic nerve condition that causes, back, hip and leg pain, and makes him walk with a limp. Flare-ups of that condition have forced him to cancel or modify high-profile appearances.
These setbacks, combined with his age, have fueled speculation that Francis might follow in the steps of his predecessor and step down. Benedict XVI, who died last month, retired in 2013, the first pope in 600 years to do so.
Francis has said in past interviews that he has never ruled out retirement, though he had no immediate plans to do so, but he told The Associated Press that he had not considered drafting norms – as some cardinals and canon lawyers have suggested – to “regularize or regulate” papal resignations in the future, saying that Benedict’s gesture did not set sufficient precedent. Other popes might handle retirement differently, he said.
He was frank in his negative assessment of the reforms being mulled by the German church, which include married priests, female deacons, and church blessings for same-sex couples. He warned that the so-called “Synodal Path,” which has involved dialogue between the German bishops and a lay organization known as the Central Committee of German Catholics, risked becoming dideological.
“Here the danger is that something very, very ideological trickles in. When ideology gets involved in church processes, the Holy Spirit goes home, because ideology overcomes the Holy Spirit,” Francis said.
Francis also addressed the wave of criticism from cardinals and bishops to his papacy that only intensified after Benedict’s death on Dec. 31, describing it like an unpleasant “rash that bothers you a bit.” But he said that it was important that his critics were able to speak freely.
“If it’s not like this, there would be a dictatorship of distance, as I call it, where the emperor is there and no one can tell him anything,” Francis said. “Criticism helps you to grow and improve things.”
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