Pope Francis says Catholic Church shouldn’t recognize gay families
The Pope told a Catholic families event that the church should only recognize heterosexual parents
Pope Francis has condemned same-sex families, saying they do not deserve to be recognized in the Catholic Church.
Francis made the comments at an event for Catholic families in Italy, saying that opposite-sex parent families are the only partnerships that should be recognized by the church.
“It is painful to say this today: People speak of varied families, of various kinds of family [but] the family [as] man and woman in the image of God is the only one,” he said, according to ANSA News Agency, who published the remarks on Saturday.
Francis apparently also said that abortion should be considered the modern-day Holocaust.
“In the last century, the entire world was scandalized by what the Nazis did to ensure the purity of the race,” he said. “Today we do the same, but with white gloves.”
The Pope even praised spouses who stay with partners that are unfaithful, saying that it’s more holy to wait for them to stop cheating rather than seek a divorce.
“Many women — but even men sometimes do it — wait in silence, looking the other way, waiting for their husband to become faithful again,” he said, adding that it was “the sanctity that forgives all out of love.”
It is not uncommon for Pope Francis to have an inconsistent message regarding LGBTQ issues. Earlier this year, he made headlines for telling a gay man that God made him that way and his sexuality was “not a problem.”
And in 2016, Francis said that Christians owe apologies to gays and other groups who have been marginalized by the church.
However, last month, the Pope warned Italian Bishops to monitor for any gay applicants trying to join the priesthood and to not allow them into the church.
And in 2015, he said that conservative Christians should be allowed to refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses if doing so violates their personal religious beliefs. That same year, he said that the institution of marriage was threatened by redefining sexuality.
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