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Gay Catholic Groups Want the Vatican to Do More Than Apologize
Source: New York Times
Gay Catholic Groups Want the Vatican to Do More Than Apologize
By JIM YARDLEY JUNE 27, 2016
ROME — Leaders of gay Catholic groups on Monday praised Pope Francis for saying that all Christians and the Roman Catholic Church owed an apology to gays for previous mistreatment, even as the groups called on the church to take more concrete steps to repudiate past teachings and condemn anti-gay violence.
Streaking across the sky on Sunday night in his papal airliner, returning from a visit to Armenia, Francis also visibly winced, momentarily overcome with emotion, when a journalist, Cindy Wooden, mentioned the recent attack at an Orlando gay nightclub and noted that Christians are sometimes blamed for stigmatizing homosexuals.
Francis did not directly address the Orlando killings. But he endorsed a comment of one of his top advisers who, soon after the Orlando attack, said that the church had marginalized gay people and should apologize.
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Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, a leading organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Catholics, said the pope’s remarks represented a powerful statement, if not enough.
“For a pope to acknowledge that the church has done so much damage to gay people, and that we deserve an apology, is an unprecedented act of humility,” she said in a telephone interview. “But a statement of remorse is only as good as the change in behavior that follows.”
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
By JIM YARDLEY JUNE 27, 2016
ROME — Leaders of gay Catholic groups on Monday praised Pope Francis for saying that all Christians and the Roman Catholic Church owed an apology to gays for previous mistreatment, even as the groups called on the church to take more concrete steps to repudiate past teachings and condemn anti-gay violence.
Streaking across the sky on Sunday night in his papal airliner, returning from a visit to Armenia, Francis also visibly winced, momentarily overcome with emotion, when a journalist, Cindy Wooden, mentioned the recent attack at an Orlando gay nightclub and noted that Christians are sometimes blamed for stigmatizing homosexuals.
Francis did not directly address the Orlando killings. But he endorsed a comment of one of his top advisers who, soon after the Orlando attack, said that the church had marginalized gay people and should apologize.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, a leading organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Catholics, said the pope’s remarks represented a powerful statement, if not enough.
“For a pope to acknowledge that the church has done so much damage to gay people, and that we deserve an apology, is an unprecedented act of humility,” she said in a telephone interview. “But a statement of remorse is only as good as the change in behavior that follows.”
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/world/europe/pope-francis-gays-christians-apology.html
