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CV NEWS FEED // Pope Francis’ stance on homosexuality has been complex, when not ambiguous throughout his papacy, from his “Who am I to judge?” statement on homosexuality early in his papacy to using an offensive slur against homosexuals to describe “too much gayness” in seminaries.
Pope Francis’ famous “Who am I to judge?” quip occurred on an in-flight interview on his way back from his papal visit to Brazil for 2013’s World Youth Day. Journalist Ilze Scamparini asked the Pope about “gay lobbies” in the Vatican after Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca, a [former] Vatican bank official was accused of homosexual relations throughout his priesthood.
Pope Francis answered that a preliminary investigation had not found Monsignor Ricca guilty of the accusations and added that it was important not to dig up “sins from youth” of church officials, noting that Jesus forgave Peter for denying Him.
“If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this in a beautiful way, saying … wait a moment, how does it say it … it says: ‘no one should marginalize these people for this, they must be integrated into society.’ The problem is not having this tendency, no, we must be brothers and sisters to one another, and there is this one and there is that one. The problem is in making a lobby of this tendency.”
Many news outlets reported the remarks as an endorsement of homosexual relations. The Associated Press stated that the Pope “struck a conciliatory stance towards gays” and claimed the comment was in reference to the sexual orientation of priests.
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the pro-LGBT “Catholic” New Ways Ministry, stated in response to the interview, “Basically, I’m overjoyed at the news.”
In 2013, CatholicVote explained that the statement did not condone homosexual behavior; instead, the Pope stated that Catholics should welcome those fighting to live chastely.
“He [Pope Francis] said exactly what he meant to say and nothing more,” CV reported. “Liberal advocates of same-sex marriage — especially in the press — make a grave error by misinterpreting his words to imply otherwise.”
In 2020, Pope Francis openly endorsed same-sex legal unions in a documentary interviewing him about various issues, Francesco. He stated in the film, “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. 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.”
The film also highlighted Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of clergy sex abuse. Cruz is openly gay and serves on the board of the pro-LGBT organization Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). He is also a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Vatican, as CatholicVote previously reported.
Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis has associated with the other “gay rights” activists who also claim to be Catholic, who promote LGBT lifestyles in defiance of Church teaching.
In October 2023, Pope Francis surprisingly met with the leaders of New Ways Ministry during the Synod on Synodality, as CatholicVote then reported. The meeting included the organization’s co-founder, Sister Jeannine Gramick.
“Previous popes and church leaders have opposed Sister Jeannine and New Ways Ministry,” the organization wrote in a statement after the meeting. “This meeting now represents a new openness to the pastorally-motivated, justice-seeking approach which Sister Jeannine and her organization have long practiced.”
2023 also marked the publication of Fiducia Supplicans, written by the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández and signed by Pope Francis.
As CatholicVote reported, the document, which allowed Catholic clerics to bless same-sex couples, was met with very different reactions from bishops around the world. Some bishops rejected the document entirely and instructed their priests not to perform such blessings.
Though the document did not change the Church’s teaching that marriage only exists between a man and a woman, pro-LGBT Catholics, such as Father James Martin, celebrated the document.
Fr. Martin called Fiducia Supplicans “a major step forward in the church’s ministry to LGBTQ people and recognizes the deep desire in many Catholic same-sex couples for God’s presence in their loving relationships.”
Pope Francis also wrote the introduction for Fr. Martin’s book Come Forth: The Raising of Lazarus and the Promise of Jesus’ Greatest Miracle, according to the Catholic Herald. The book, according to some critics, presents Lazarus’s story as a metaphor for same-sex attracted people to “come out” and act on their inclinations.
Pope Francis wrote that the book is “always fascinating and never predictable,” and that Fr. Martin makes “the biblical text come alive.”
Despite the apparent tolerance of same-sex unions throughout the papacy, in 2024, Pope Francis stated that he was against allowing same-sex attracted men into the seminary. He used an offensive slur to describe current trends in the seminary.
CatholicVote reported that the Pope stated, “Nei seminari c’è già troppa frociaggine,” which literally translates to, “there is already too much fa**otry in the seminaries.”
A week later, the Vatican press office issued a statement apologizing for the comment. The statement said that Pope Francis “never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who were offended by the use of a term, reported by others.”
In addition to Pope Francis’s rejection of same-sex attracted men entering the seminary, he clearly reaffirmed in Fiducia Supplicans the Church’s unchanging teaching that marriage can only take place between one man and one woman. The declaration defined marriage as an “exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children.”
“When it comes to blessings, the Church has the right and the duty to avoid any rite that might contradict this conviction or lead to confusion,” the document states. “Such is also the meaning of the Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which states that the Church does not have the power to impart blessings on unions of persons of the same sex.”
