America magazine published an interview with Pope Francis this morning. A friend who knew it was forthcoming emailed me a few minutes beforehand, warning, “You’ll sh*t your pants.” Instead, I nearly cried.
Here’s why:
A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human being. In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation. It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.
As a Catholic, who happens to work in the church, and who writes extensively about the church, and who is also gay, I am fairly desensitized to the veiled bigotry employed by so many Catholic leaders. Sure, the cardinals and bishops who seem obsessed with issues of homosexuality usually begin their statements recalling the Catechism of the Catholic Church that reminds us all people are to be treated with dignity. But in the next breath, their words turn to sin, disorder, unnaturalness, and general judgment and condemnation. Under Pope Benedict XVI, combined with rapid advancements for LGBT people in the West, the church’s attitude and language toward gay people reached a nadir.
With Francis, even early, we sensed something had changed.
We learned quickly that he had supported same-sex civil unions while archbishop of Buenos Aires. Early in his pontificate, I told friends and family that it was truly remarkable he hadn’t mentioned the church’s well-known opposition to same-sex marriage. If this omission alone continued, I thought, it would be progress.
Then, on a plane ride back from World Youth Day in Buenos Aires, Francis, when asked about gay priests, said simply, “Who am I to judge?” Who am I to judge? You’re the pope! My heart swelled.
His comments attracted the attention of secular media, and bishops and Catholics of a certain inclination walked them back, rejected them, explained them away. One prominent archbishop even attributed the comments to the pope being on a high from the excitement in Buenos Aires.
