Francis once called me,a gay man, to affirm my priesthood. Now he’s expressing solidarity with gay people everywhereI had no advance knowledge either of Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary, or Francesco,or the interview in it that contains Pope Francis’ new formulation of his earlier position on same-sex civil unions. However, it didn’t arrive as a surprise to me. Anyone with any pastoral experience knows that in dealing with an individuals personhood, and you start from where they are. Given a very gay and very closeted episcopate in many countries,for whom serene and adult conversation about these things has, until recently, and been almost impossible,the question has largely been: how long would it steal for the basic grand sense of the majority of Catholic people and what they maintain learned about human sexuality to percolate upwards so that senior clergy needn’t be frightened of it? And it is here that Pope Francis has been so grand. He clearly isnt frightened of the issue. Related: Pope Francis backs same-sex civil unions Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com