POPE SAYS GOD MADE PEOPLE GAY
Pope proclaims equality in God’s eyes
IT WASN’T QUITE a blessing, but a gay man who talked with Pope Francis about child sex abuse said the pontiff’s comment about his sexual orientation was the next best thing.
Juan Carlos Cruz, who was victimized as a child by notorious Chilean pedophile priest Fernando Karadima, said the progressive Pope told him in a private meeting two weeks ago that it “does not matter” to him that Cruz is gay.
“He told me, ‘Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter,’ ” Cruz recalled for El País, a Spanish newspaper.
“‘God made you like this and loves you like this and I don’t care. The Pope loves you like this. You have to be happy with who you are.’ ”
Cruz said his sexuality came up in conversation because Chilean bishops had sought to use it to discredit him, a source of pain he shared with the Pope.
As a policy, the Vatican does not comment on the Pope’s private comments, and declined to confirm or deny the remarks to multiple news outlets.
If the Pope did make the comments, it would not be the first time the pontiff has spoken out about homosexuality.
In 2013, Pope Francis made a remark about gay priests that resonated throughout the Catholic Church.
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis told reporters, speaking in Italian but using the English word “gay.”
Later that year, he suggested in an interview that God does not “reject and condemn” gay people.
In contrast with the 81-year-old Francis’ outlook, his predecessor, Pope Benedict, wrote in 2005 that homosexuality was “a strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil,” and an “objective disorder.”
Cruz found a lot more comfort in Francis’ words.
“I spoke for more than two and a half hours alone with Pope Francis,” he said.
“He listened to me with great respect, affection and closeness, like a father. We talked about many subjects. Today I have more hope in the future of our church . . . Even though the task is enormous.” After weeks of reflection, Cruz said he is still moved by the moment. “Something else that I will always remember about my hours of conversations with Pope Francis @Pontifex will be this,” Cruz tweeted Sunday. “His phrase: Who am I to judge? I experienced it personally and I hope many feel that no one is excluded or should be excluded . . . ever!” Karadima was found guilty by the Vatican in 2011 of abusing dozens of minors over decades and sentenced him to a year of “prayer and penitence.” Cruz said in El País that Francis called what clergy did to him “awful” and “a terrible evil.” “He told me, ‘Help me so that the Holy Spirit guides me so that I know well what I have to do,’ ” Cruz said.But some observers warned against interpreting the comments as a shift in church policy, because they were made in private and not independently confirmed.