(Read the post online for better viewing & lots of resources)
ABOARD THE PAPAL
AIRCRAFT — 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.
2 Timothy 3 English
Standard Version (ESV)
Godlessness in the
Last Days
3 But understand
this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people
will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient
to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous,
without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen
with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the
appearance of godliness, but denying its power.
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