The Catholic church isn’t particularly known for its open-mindedness (and I say that as a non-practicing Catholic myself). Their views on everything from birth control and abortion to homosexuality have always been behind the times, but Pope Francis has now made a game-changing announcement by voicing support for same-sex civil unions.
- Homosexual people are God’s creation too, right? Appearing in the feature-length documentary Francesco, the 83-year-old Church leader pointed out what should be obvious to all Catholics: you’re not not a child of God simply because of your sexual orientation. “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”
- This isn’t necessarily a hot take for Pope Francis. According to AP News, Pope Francis previously supported same-sex civil unions back when he was serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires. However, now that he’s literally the head honcho of the Catholic church as a whole, this public endorsement is pretty groundbreaking.
- He’s always embraced (or at least accepted) the LGBTQ+ community. As far back as 2016, he addressed the community in his book Thee Name of God is Mercy, writing, “If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person? I was paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalized. … I am glad that we are talking about ‘homosexual people’ because before all else comes the individual person, in his wholeness and dignity. And people should not be defined only by their sexual tendencies: let us not forget that God loves all his creatures and we are destined to receive his infinite love.”
- It’s time for the Catholic church to get with the times. After all, the Church is hardly innocent and embracing the ways of God considering the rampant abuse that goes on within it, so they could stand to be a little less judgmental about people who are simply living their lives and not hurting anyone else.
Featured image credit: Long Thiên/CC-BY-SA 2.0
