Pope Francis, leader of the world’s 1.27 billion Catholics, called on Sunday for Christians to apologise to gays for the hostility with which they had sometimes been treated by the church.
But while the world’s media has focussed on his remarks regarding gays, the Pope widened his call for repentance to all those who had suffered.
“I believe that the church not only should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended, but has to apologise to the poor, to exploited women, to children exploited for labour; it has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons,” CNN quoted him as saying.
His comments strongly indicated that the church must apologise not just for what it had done, but for what it had not done when it could – and should – have intervened.
“The Church must ask forgiveness for not behaving many times – when I say the Church, I mean Christians! The Church is holy, we are sinners!” the Pope said.
Meanwhile, Reuters News Agency reported that Francis had been hailed by many in the gay community for being the most merciful pope toward them in recent history.
However, it said that conservative Catholics had criticised him for making comments they say are ambiguous about sexual morality.
And the BBC has noted that in 2013 Pope Francis reaffirmed the Church’s position that while a homosexual orientation was not sinful, homosexual acts were.
Gays in Tonga
There can be a huge gap between what is tolerated and what is accepted
Male homosexuality is tolerated in Tonga, but laws still exist making certain homosexual behaviour illegal.
Traditional transgendered people – fakaleiti – are given more acceptance and support and there is a government-sponsored transsexual beauty pageant, the Miss Galaxy Pageant.
As we reported in our April story on Pope Francis’s call for more tolerance of gays and divorced Catholics, many Catholic clergy and laypeople from developing nations are far more conservative than their western counterparts.
And the Pope knows that not every diocese around the world will be ready to immediately follow his call for more tolerance.
The head of the Catholic Church in Tonga, Cardinal Mafi, joined the protest against signing the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) because he thought it conflicted with the Church’s beliefs on same sex marriage and abortion.
Once again, the Pope has spoken but it remains to be seen whether Catholics in Tonga will be encouraged to follow him.
- Pope Francis, leader of the world’s 1.27 billion Catholics, called on Sunday for Christians to apologise to gays for the hostility with which they had sometimes been treated by the church.
- While the world’s media has focussed on his remarks regarding gays, the Pope widened his call for repentance to all those who had suffered.
- The Pope knows that not every diocese around the world will be ready to immediately follow his call for more tolerance.
- It remains to be seen whether Catholics in Tonga will be encouraged to follow him.
READ MORE
- Transgendered Tongan ‘leitis’ finding their way in the conservative country
- Pope Francis says Church should apologise to gays
Pope Francis calls for more tolerance of gays, divorced church goers, but is Tonga ready?
