Pope Francis: Gay, Transgender People Deserve Pastoral Care

[Thorolfr]

Btw, ComplineSanFran, have you read Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message To Parents Of Homosexual Children And Suggestions For Pastoral Ministers ?

One major complaint I’ve seen of this document is that it’s addressed to the parents of homosexual children but there are not really any similar documents that are addressed to gay people themselves. There is often a tendency to talk about gay people in many church documents rather than talking to them.

 

[Peter_J]

One major complaint I’ve seen of this document is that it’s addressed to the parents of homosexual children but there are not really any similar documents that are addressed to gay people themselves. There is often a tendency to talk about gay people in many church documents rather than talking to them.

Well … maybe you’re right.

Certainly I would say that this ^^ complaint makes more sense to me than DignityUSA’s “disappointment in the bishops’ continued distinction between homosexual orientation and activity”.

 

[Peter_J]

Certainly I would say that this ^^ complaint makes more sense to me than DignityUSA’s “disappointment in the bishops’ continued distinction between homosexual orientation and activity”.

P.S. You may have already guessed that I’m still trying to wrap my head around that one (and I can’t help noticing that no one here has attempted to defended it). Granted, I would have expected DignityUSA to criticize the bishops for proclaiming the truth about the sinfulness of homosexual activity … but to criticize them for making the distinction between that and orientation? There are no words.

 

[pnewton]

However, with regard to your last paragraph, it doesn’t exactly sound you’re trying to cut His Grace “a little slack”. It sounds more like you want people to countenance the accusation made against him (I mean the accusation that he blamed Catholics for the Orlando Jihad).

Absolutely not. I believe just the opposite. He should be given the most favorable benefit of the doubt. In fact, this whole dissection of every word that hits the news needs to be dialed back. The problem is that one side will take something further than it was meant, leading the others to respond.

However, if we were to dissect what he said, then do so properly. He did not say Catholics were to blame. Diagram the sentence if you don’t believe me. Religion was to blame. Then he did not define the word “blame” or clarify what he meant.

Then we have the context. He was not trying to make a theological point. He was responding to a tragedy in his area. Since there was a religious nature to the crime, it seems proper to look inward to see if there was anything better the Catholic Church did. Obviously this one guy is to blame, period, if we interpret blame as being strictly responsible for this action.