Pope Francis said on Sunday that Christians and the Roman Catholic Church owe apologies to gays and others for the way they had treated them.
"I repeat what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: that they must not be discriminated against, that they must be respected and accompanied pastorally," the pontiff said at a press conference aboard the papal plane returning from Armenia.
"The Church must ask forgiveness for not behaving many times -- when I say the Church, I mean Christians! The Church is holy, we are sinners," the Pope added.
The Pope's comments came in response to a question about a German Cardinal who said the Catholic Church should apologize for being "very negative" about the gay community. The Pope was asked, by the same journalist, whether Christians bear some blame for hatred toward the LGBT people, as demonstrated in the tragic Orlando massacre at a gay night club that killed 49 people on June 12.
Homosexuality, as the Church teaches, is not a sin, but homosexual acts are, and that homosexuals should try to be chaste.
The Pope spoke expansively as often he does during unscripted speeches, saying the church should seek forgiveness for a number of reasons throughout history.
“I think that the Church not only should apologize … to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologize to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by (being forced to) work. It must apologize for having blessed so many weapons.”
Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor at large of America magazine, called the Pope's call for apology to gays and lesbians "a groundbreaking moment."
"While St. John Paul II apologized to several groups in 2000 -- the Jewish people, indigenous peoples, immigrants and women, among them -- no pope has ever come close to apologizing to the LGBT community. And the Pope is correct of course. First, because forgiveness is an essential part of the Christian life. And second, because no group feels more marginalized in the church today than LGBT people," Martin wrote.
Pope Francis also said that discrimination against gays, instead of respecting them, is a behavior that can be condemned.
He said: "One can condemn, but not for theological reasons, but for reasons of political behavior...Certain manifestations are a bit too offensive for others, no?"
"But these are things that have nothing to do with the problem. The problem is a person that has a condition, that has good will and who seeks God, who are we to judge? And we must accompany them well," Pope Francis added.
The Pope first uttered the now-famous rethorical question "Who am I to judge?" in 2013, also during a news conference on the papal plane.
Sorrow. Dismay. Pain. #PopeFrancis, when I mentioned Orlando massacre. pic.twitter.com/1k6qL2En47— Cindy Wooden (@Cindy_Wooden) June 26, 2016
Sources: CNN The Guardian
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