Pope Francis dropped a bombshell on Sunday when asked if he thought the Catholic Church should apologize to the LGBT community, an issue brought to the forefront by the recent controversial comments from Cardinal Rienhard Marx.
Pope Francis's response was surprising, even for such an unconventional man.
Pope Francis first cited the catechism’s teaching that gays are not to be discriminated against. Every good Catholic knows that passage.
However he went on to claim that the Catholic Church shouldn’t just treat the LGBT community without discrimination. The Catholic Church should in fact, apologize for the many wrongs it has done not just to the LGBT community, but almost every possible marginalized group.
Francis stated:
"I believe that the church not only should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended… but has to apologize to the poor, to exploited women, to children exploited for labor; it has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons."
I'm surprised he didn't throw race into the mix.
According to Pope Francis, the Church must apologize for child labor, wars it has endorsed, abuse of women, and the maltreatment of the poor.
Pope Francis thinks the Church should apologize for all these alleged slights despite the fact that it's the world's leading charitable organization; despite that fact that Leo XIII’s landmark encyclical Rarum Novarum set the world standard of modern work ethics; despite the veneration given to the great women of the Church, and despite the catechism’s order against the discrimination according to sexual identity.
Even so, the entire Church apparently must apologize.
However well-intentioned his apparent fear of alienating liberals makes him seem almost contemptuous of conservatives. Statements like these don’t help his case.