Pope Francis said that God doesn’t “disown” any of his children — even those who are part of the LGBTQ community.
Late last week, the Rev. James Martin asked the pope if he would be willing to answer “a few of the most common questions” about LGBTQ Catholics and their families.
Martin, a Jesuit priest who has for long advocated for the inclusion of LGBTQ people in the Catholic church, wrote a brief note to the Argentinian-born Pontiff in his native language, Spanish, asking three questions about what LGBTQ people should know about God, the church, and rejection.
In a brief handwritten note, the Holy Father explained that God doesn’t disown anyone, and that anti-LGBTQ rejection comes from “people in the church” — and not from the institution itself.
The 61-year-old editor-at-large of America Magazine, started his mini-interview by asking Francis about the most important thing LGBTQ individuals should know about God.
“God is Father and he does not disown any of his children. And ‘the style’ of God is ‘closeness, mercy and tenderness.’ Along this path you will find God,” Francis said.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/UEVAEVWSERDUFFBK7NGC6TVVAI.jpg)
The second question was about what LGBTQ people should know about the church, to which Francis responded by directing them to “the book of the Acts of the Apostles [where] they will find the image of the living church.”
The final question was about members of the LGBTQ community who feel rejected by the Catholic church.
According to the pope, that rejection doesn’t really come from the church, but from people in it — despite the fact that in March 2021 the Vatican published a decree stating that priests can’t bless same-sex unions, since they are “not ordered to the Creator’s plan.”
“I would have them recognize it not as ‘the rejection of the church,’ but instead of ‘people in the church,’” Francis responded. “The church is a mother and calls together all her children. Take for example the parable of those invited to the feast: “the just, the sinners, the rich and the poor, etc.”
The Vatican document, which was approved by Francis, stated that it’d be “illicit” to acknowledge same-sex unions, and God “cannot bless sin” — even though Christians should treat “persons with homosexual inclinations” with “respect and sensitivity.”
