Monday 072913 - Pope Francis

Well. The Huffington Post reports Pope Francis saying this: "Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord?" Apparently, he was not speaking about gayfolk in general; he had been asked about gay priests.  My assumption is that his assumption is that all, including gay, priests are celibate  -  now, that would be an interesting thing to do some research on! Not in my personal experience of Roman priests and Religious ... but that's another issue. Presumably he meant that the sexual sins of priests can certainly be forgiven if, as is true of all "confession", the admission and repentance is genuine. I assume (this is a lot of assuming ... since I try to follow one of Dom Don Miguel Ruiz's Four Agreements: 'Do not make assumptions' ! ... that the Pope feels he was "safe" in making these remarks because he was not making remarks about gayfolk in general, same-sex orientation, sexual identity, etc.

Who knows (yet) what he really thinks about homosexual orientation? About Nature? About genes and how they work and why? But, I shall be positive and optimistic. I shall be interested to see if this is the first step towards a change in the thinking of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church ... with the Pope taking the lead. My hope is that the Holy Spirit really was at work in the election of this Pope, and that the cardinals got more than they expected in choosing him. I'll probably be long dead before anything substantial happens on this issue in the RC Church. But ... unless John XXIII said something I missed, Francis may be the first pope to make a statement like he made ... about not judging. To me (prejudiced, of course) that sounds like something Jesus would say in this situation and present context, as I understand Jesus.

I suppose I could be wrong about Jesus ..........  but ... Nah!

So: Go Francis! May this be the first step towards greater understanding, love, compassion, sense, and justice.