Pope’s stunning comments to gay man Vatican City
A Chilean whistleblower who suffered clerical sexual abuse has said that Pope Francis told him in a private conversation that God had made him gay and loved him that way.
The Vatican declined to comment on the report but, if confirmed, it would be a striking statement of tolerance towards homosexuality, which the Church has condemned as an immoral disorder if it is actively practised. In interviews with Spanish newspaper El Paisa as well as the New York Times and the Associated Press, abuse victim Juan Carlos Cruz said that Pope Francis had told him during a meeting this month: ‘‘The fact that you are gay does not matter’’.
Cruz said he told the Pope how Chile’s bishops used his sexual orientation as a weapon to try to discredit him.
‘‘God made you this way and loves you this way, and it doesn’t matter to me,’’ Cruz said Pope Francis told him. ‘‘The Pope loves you this way, you must be happy the way you are.’’
Cruz was one of three Chilean victims who were invited to Rome this month in the wake of a scandal in Chile over priestly sexual abuse and efforts by the Church hierarchy to hush it up. The pope is planning to meet more victims of Chile’s most notorious predator priest. The Vatican said yesterday that five of the victims of sexual and psychological abuse by the Rev. Fernando Karadima were themselves priests. – AP