Last Month Pope Francis told the
Associated Press during an exclusive
interview, “Being homosexual isn’t a crime,”
sending global shock waves again. “It’s not
a crime,” the pontiff stated. “Yes, but it’s
a sin. Fine, but first let’s distinguish
between a sin and a crime.”
The pontiff’s statement helps and
hurts the LGBTQ+ community.
The
LGBTQ+
community worldwide is under constant
attack. Pope Francis is a global influencer;
he alone can create a movement to
decriminalize homosexuality.
Nearly 70 countries have
criminalized their LGBTQ+ populations with
the death penalty in 11 of them. Last year
in the U.S., over 300 anti-LGBTQ+
legislation bills in 28 states were
presented. Florida’s “Don’t Say Bill” was
signed into law.
Many
LGBTQ+
organizations and Catholics have applauded
the pontiff’s statement. Some see Francis’s
pronouncement as a softer and more humane
attempt to mitigate the harassment, stigma,
violence, and in some cases, death our
community has experienced.
“His
historic
statement should send a message to world
leaders and millions of Catholics around
the world: LGBTQ people deserve to live in
a world without violence and condemnation,
and more kindness and understanding,”
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the
U.S.-based advocacy group, GLAAD, told the
press.
Francis correctly states that his
“bishops, in particular, need to undergo a
process of change to recognize the dignity
of everyone.” In 2008, the Vatican declined
to sign a U.N. declaration to decriminalize
homosexuality. However, we have seen
throughout Francis’s papacy that his
pronouncements don’t alter Church teachings,
making him look like a church bureaucrat, a
flip-flopper, or, at worse, a titular head.
For
example,
in 2020, The Vatican walked back Francis’s
vocal support for same-sex unions. In
October 2020, while interviewing about his
life for the documentary “Francesco,”
Francis fully endorsed same-sex civil
unions, again setting off global shock
waves.
“Homosexual
people
have the right to be in a family. They are
children of God,” the pontiff said in the
film by Oscar-nominated director Evgeny
Afineevsky. “You can’t kick someone out of a
family, nor make their life miserable for
this. What we have to have is a civil union
law; that way, they are legally covered.”
Francis’s
statement
was a Hallelujah moment for many LGBTQ+
Catholics. It optimistically suggested a
game-changer, having dogma-transforming
ramifications for the church in this 21st
century despite conservatives and
traditionalist priests still hell-bent on
continuing on the anti-modernity track of
his now-deceased predecessor, Pope Benedict
XVI.The Vatican stepped in, making public
its terse statement, “Nothing to see here,
Secretariat of State argues, saying no
change in view of homosexuality.”
Another example was in 2021, the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
the Vatican’s orthodoxy office, issued a
formal statement instructing its priests not
to offer blessings to same-sex couples. The
church’s reason: God cannot bless sin. To
the shock of LGBTQ+ Catholics and allies
globally, Pope Francis approved the decree.
His approval of the decree was a betrayal
despite the many liberal-leaning LGBTQ+
optimistic pronouncements heard during his
papacy.
For instance, I recall Pope
Francis’s remarks while flying home after a
weeklong visit to Brazil in 2013, responding
to a question about a possible “gay lobby”
in the Vatican. His answer set off global
shock waves. “When I meet a gay person, I
have to distinguish between their being gay
and being part of a lobby,” he said. “If
they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who
am I to judge them?” The pontiff’s public
statement was then the most LGBTQ+ affirming
remark the world had ever heard from the
Catholic Church until his recent comment
that “homosexuality is not a crime.”
But Francis hurts the global LGBTQ+
community by calling homosexuality a sin.
“When
I
said it is a sin, I was simply referring to
Catholic moral teaching, which says that
every sexual act outside of marriage is a
sin,” Francis stated in a written response
to Outreach editor James Martin, S.J.
The pontiff has been in office just
a month shy of a decade. His seemingly
affirming statements during his tenure have
not changed church teachings on
homosexuality or same-sex unions.
I do hope some countries heed
Francis’s advice and stop criminalizing
homosexuality. However, Francis stating that
“Homosexuality is a sin” leaves in place his
characterization and the church’s belief of
us as being “intrinsically disordered” and
contrary to natural law.
Being LGBTQ+ is not a crime. Being
LGBTQ+ is not a sin. However, the church’s
stance about us is a sin upon itself, and a
crime against humanity.
