Christianity,  News

Pope offers “blessing” to gay Catholic group?

The magazine America reports that Pope Francis has continued his informal outreach to gay and lesbians within the Roman Catholic Church. In June, Pope Francis wrote to one such group called Kairos of Florence. According to one member of the group, “Pope Francis…assured the group of his blessing.” Here's an excerpt from the report:

In their letter, a group of gay and lesbian Catholics… asked for openness and dialogue, noting that closure to discussion “always feeds homophobia.” The members were shocked to receive a personal response to their appeal from Pope Francis. One leader of the group told La Repubblica “no one had ever even given a nod of response” before. The Kairos group said they also received a letter from the Vatican Secretariat of State, which informed them that Pope Francis “really enjoyed” their letter to him and the way it was written, calling it an act of “spontaneous confidence.”

One Kairos leader said Pope Francis had also assured the group of his blessing, something they could not before have imagined happening. The members of Kairos have decided to keep the rest of the message of both letters private.

The reporting on this is still sketchy. It is possible that some things have been lost in translation. Access to the entire letter would obviously help any evaluation of the Pope's remarks.

(HT: Elizabeth Tenety)

4 Comments

  • Ian Shaw

    I’d want to hear more of what happened and the greater context before laying any kind of comment down. We really don’t know the context of how he meant what he said.

  • Andre du Toit

    Without judging the issue, Jesus reached out to the outcasts of society and this is our role as well. Whether the Pope condones gay “marriages” is another matter altogether. Considering the nature of the Press, they will most probably slant it in such a manner as to attract most attention – which may be totally different from the truth.

    • Chris Ryan

      +1

      This Pope is different though, in tone if not in doctrine. Simply being more opening to the LGBT community is a great and welcome departure from his predecessor. I’m not so sure (based on his statements abt atheists going to heaven) that he doesn’t intend some substantive doctrinal shifts as well though. Time will tell.

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