Pope Francis’ call for legal acceptance of #same-sex relationships has raised both hope and worries among #LGBTQ Catholics.

“What we need certainly to create is a civil union law,” the pontiff said in “Francesco,” an upcoming documentary from Russian American filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky. “That way, these are typically legally covered. I stood up for that.”

The remarks are a departure from earlier church messaging. Inside the last book, “Memory and Identity,” Pope John Paul II suggested same-sex marriage was “part of an innovative new ideology of evil.”

In 2003, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, wrote that respect for gays and lesbians “cannot lead in any solution to the approval of homosexual behavior or even to legal recognition of homosexual unions.”

“Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on a single level as marriage will mean not only the approval of deviant behavior,” Ratzinger wrote, “but would also obscure basic values which fit in with the normal inheritance of humanity.” It has not been long ago that African Americans and Whites could intermarry. At that time, some Whites believed that Blacks would destroy the white race. Now, we see that the Pope is making a bold statement. Why are some people concerned about others’ marriage when their marriage ends in divorce because of an unfaithful partner who may be practicing deviant behavior with an individual of a different gender or that same-gender, which leads to adultery? Why get in other people’s business if your business is not perfect? Who gives a person the right to tell others who to love when your Christian bible say, “save yourself”? What would G-d say about one’s prejudice toward a sister or brother who may not share the same beliefs? Are we better than the other person because we know scriptures and many times misquote them without knowing the historial context that time in which scripture was written? If we take the scriptures literally, should we be stoning people?There are gay people in our families, pulpits, professional life who are doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, firefighter, ministers, essential workers, and in the church serving in every ministry whether known or unkown. There are just questions to think about.

Reference
Pope’s civil union remarks raise hopes, doubts for gay Catholics. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/pope-s-civil-union-remarks-raise-hopes-doubts-gay-catholics-n1244337?cid=referral_taboolafeed