Pope Francis endorsing same-sex unions a historic moment

To the secular world this may seem to be merely one small step, but for the Roman Catholic Church it’s a leap of such proportions that most thought it could never happen.

In a documentary, Pope Francis says: “Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it.” And then, in a comment that truly is unprecedented for a Pope, “What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered.”

This may sound bland and even conservative to some, particularly in a country that legalized same-sex marriage more than 15 years ago, but no Pope has ever come even close to such a position in the history of the church.

It falls far short of equal marriage of course, the language is likely to be parsed and qualified by some Catholic commentators, and there is still enormous amounts of work to be done on the issue for genuine equality to occur. Until now, Roman Catholic teaching has emphasized that while LGBTQ people are to be treated with respect, homosexual activity is sinful, “objectively disordered” and “contrary to natural law.”

Francis has shown progress on the issue for some time, having been relatively unbending in the earlier years of his pontificate. Recently he told a group of parents of LGBTQ children that, “God loves your children as they are. The Church loves your children as they are, because they are children of God.” This new opinion goes much further.

Conservative Catholics are already either scolding Francis or trying to argue that he didn’t quite mean what he said. This is the standard response, but is so overused that nobody takes it seriously any longer.

There’s also a shocking degree of hatred being thrown at the man by people who are supposed to revere him as the successor to St. Peter. Incredibly, there are right-wing Catholic activists waiting for the Pope to die and even, as grim as it may sound, hoping and praying for that day.

It’s all made more complex, and hypocritical, because of the number of Catholic priests who are gay. It’s an open secret within the clergy.

In his book “The Changing Face of the Priesthood,” for example, Father Donald Cozzens estimate as many as 58 per cent of priests are gay, and that percentages are higher for younger men.

Many of them are celibate, but many are not.

Then there is the challenge of why this matters so much in the first place. Homosexuality is seldom mentioned in scripture and when it is, it’s often ambiguous and obscure. The so-called “gotcha” verses from the Old Testament are usually quoted with very little understanding of what they genuinely mean.

In fact, they’re about rape and abuse rather than loving, committed samesex relationships. When St. Paul discusses the theme he’s actually writing about straight men using boys for sex, often in pagan ceremonies. Christ never mentions the subject at all but is repeatedly angry with those who judge others!

As to what happens now, this will continue to unfold and be debated. But the language has forever changed and it’s now so much kinder, informed and Christian.

There’s also a shocking degree of hatred being thrown at the man by people who are supposed to revere him as the successor to St. Peter