Well Francis will fit in perfectly in regards to his conformance to the mind set of his predecessors.
Who is he to judge? He is supposed to be the pope and a leader of Christ's Church on earth and a guiding light in respect to faith and morals. Homosexuality is a moral issue. It is a sin. Without forgiveness and amendment of one's life heaven's gates are barred, but Hell is open for business.
The Catholic Church at one time was a rock that stood as firm as St. Peter and was looked to by other Christians for some guidance. No more. It has joined the gaggle of other lukewarm or phony, watered down dogmas. In fact, subsequent to Vatican II an entirely new religion was formed.
As far as homosexuals slinking about the Vatican, I feel certain there are as I'm certain that America's current evil regime is full of them.
wimp
The Pope may not have the power to judge but he does have the power to bless.
And God will not want him blessing muff divers and butt humpers.
big time fail!
The reporters were having a field day and picking and choosing what they said and how they said it to make Francis seem as liberal as possible. He’s right about the sin being forgiven and forgotten. He is not the judge. He represents Christ and the Church but Christ is the judge.
The real threat is the Masonic lobby
This is not a “church.” It is a Trojan horse. It has always been.
The article says so clearly The official position of the Catholic Church on the issue is that while homosexual desires or attractions are not in themselves sinful, the physical acts are -- so hate the sin but not the sinner.
We hate homosexuality and the gay mafia but sympathize with those sinners.
What's wrong with what the Pope said in this context ". If someone is gay, who searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?”" - nothing?
Don't stick to just the headline... the MSM blurbs are nonsensical
Judge no, remove/excommunicate if the practice openly, yes...
FR used to be a good place to dismantle media spin and propaganda. It’s sad to see it, instead, being swallowed - hook, line and sinker.
I am an evangelical “fightin’” fundie, but also God has showed me how Christian faith exists in many different segments of nominal Christendom. The bothersome thing to me here would be for this leader of the Roman Catholic segment of Christendom to use the now ubiquitous word “gay” — if he did that. That word’s the devil’s sugarcoat on a life centered on the celebration of iniquity and it’s not JUST buggery, it’s a whole complex of hate that moves the people involved to such vicious things and to call them love. Language IS leverage. It’s not an unforgiveable sin, but it’s something I hope he watches in the future (for the sake of Christendom).
Consider the abysmal track record of the MSM when reporting on anything to do with Christianity.
I would wait until an actual transit comes out before passing judgment.
Jesus Christ in Matthew said to not judge with outward appearances, but to “judge with righteous judgment.”
And thus, we are to judge things by the Word of God (the Bible, the scriptures). Paul the Apostle echoed these statements when he said that we are to test all things by scripture.
There are no scriptures that condone homosexuality...
I would assume he meant “gay” as in orientation and not as in homosexual behavior. The Pope is not going to go against Church teaching on the matter. As he said, the catechism explains very will the difference between having same sex attraction which is disordered and the sin of homosexual acts.
"The problem is not having this orientation. We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem," he said....
....Francis discussed a range of issues during the press conference, admitting that the church had not done enough to develop “the theology of women in the church.” He said that the church had spoken on the issue of women priests and expressed itself clearly on the issue of abortion, but he added that important female biblical figures had been overlooked. "Mary is more important than the apostles," he said. "One must think about women in the church. We have not done enough theology on this."
Ping for later
Now that's funny.
In fact, here is a transcript:
«Si scrive tanto della lobby gay. Io finora non ho trovato in Vaticano chi ha scritto “gay” sulla carta d’identità. Bisogna distinguere tra l’essere gay, avere questa tendenza, e fare lobby. Le lobby, tutte le lobby, non sono buone. Se una persona è gay e cerca il Signore con buona volontà, chi sono io per giudicarlo? Il Catechismo della Chiesa cattolica insegna che le persone gay non si devono discriminare, ma si devono accogliere. Il problema non è avere questa tendenza, il problema è fare lobby e questo vale per questo come per le lobby d’affari, le lobby politiche, le lobby massoniche».
Bottom line is he draws a clear distinction between somebody who is sincerely seeking God and happens to have same sex attraction and this “gay lobby”
Reading his actual words, the is no major controversy here.
I guess I wouldn’t have minded Francis making a call for repentance along with this. Perhaps he did and it wasn’t reported.
A judge is one who convicts. Conviction of sin only happens through the Holy Spirit. Christians are supposed to be vessels through which the Holy Spirit flows.
Homosexuality must flee in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Christians who do not seek the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives are leaky vessels that won’t hold what is needed for the process of conviction.
Answer this for me please... who is he to ignore scripture or does his being pope make him rise above the word of GOD?
LLS