POPE FRANCIS: PSYCHIATRISTS CAN HELP GAY KIDS, PARENTS
ON BOARD THE PAPAL PLANE/ROME: Pope Francis has recommended parents seek psychiatric help for children who show homosexual tendencies, during a press conference on his plane taking him back to Rome from Ireland.
A journalist asked the pontiff on Sunday what he would say to parents who observe homosexual traits in their children.
“I would say first of all pray, not to condemn, to dialogue, to understand, to give space to the son or the daughter,” he responded.
Parents must also consider the age of their child, he said.
“When it shows itself from childhood, there is a lot that can be done through psychiatry, to see how things are. It is something else if it shows itself after 20 years.”
He emphasised that parents should not respond with “silence”.
“Ignoring a son or daughter who has homosexual tendencies is an error of fatherhood or motherhood.”
POPE MUM ON CLAIM HE IGNORED ABUSE
Pope Francis has declined to comment on a claim he personally ignored sexual abuse allegations against a senior clergyman, after a visit to Ireland dominated by Church scandals.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican envoy to the United States, said he had told Francis of the allegations against prominent US cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2013.
But rather than punish McCarrick, who was forced to resign last month, Vigano said Francis had lifted sanctions imposed on him by his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI.
Vigano called on Francis to resign in a letter published Saturday in the National Catholic Register.
He said the pope “knew from at least June 23, 2013, that McCarrick was a serial predator,” adding that “he knew that he was a corrupt man, he covered for him to the bitter end”.
But the pope refused to address the brewing scandal on Sunday.
“I will not say a word about that. I think that the communique speaks for itself,” Francis said on his plane as he flew back from Dublin to Rome.
He said he was demanding “firm and decisive” measures to find “truth and justice”.