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Health & Fitness

Pope Echoes Church Teaching with Comments on Gays

There has been much media attention the past 24 hours over the Pope's comments to members of the international press corps in an impromptu press conference given by the Pope on his plane traveling from World Youth Day in Brazil to Rome.

Specifically, the following comment has gotten the most attention: "If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge that person?"

While the media has reported this as some kind of break from Church teaching or shift in how the Church treats homosexual persons...just read the rest of the Pope's quote to see that is not the case:

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this point beautifully but says, wait a moment, how does it say, it says, these persons must never be marginalized and “they must be integrated into society.”

In other words, this is nothing new.  The Church's own teaching (the Catechism) states clearly that we must treat all people with dignity and respect.  That the Pope's tone and simplistic style of speaking has shed fresh light on this longstanding teaching is a good thing...but not new.

Cardinal Dolan says as much in his interview on the Today Show this morning: http://www.today.com/news/cardinal-dolan-popes-gay-remarks-we-can-judge-actions-not-6C10791364.

 

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