Gays, Catholics and Pope Francis’s view “Who am I to judge?” is confusing the clergy. Now, some gay Catholics and supporters who hoped for rapid acceptance find themselves hampered by many bishops and pastors. Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Gay’
Pope says teaching children to choose gender is wrong
Friday, August 5th, 2016
Choosing gender is not an option to teach children says Pope Francis. The Pope’s comments on gender were made during a private meeting last week with bishops from Poland. During the meeting Francis lamented children are being taught at school that gender can be a choice. “Today, in schools they are teaching this [gender choosing] Read more
Gay former CDF official suspended from priestly ministry
Friday, October 23rd, 2015A former official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who declared he is gay and has a partner has been suspended from priestly ministry. Msgr Krzysztof Charamsa lost his job at the CDF after he made a public statement about his situation and he also criticised the Church for its approach to Read more
France drops attempt to appoint gay ambassador to Vatican
Friday, October 16th, 2015
France has reportedly dropped its attempt to appoint a gay Catholic diplomat as its ambassador to the Vatican, after a nine month standoff. In January, President Francois Hollande named Laurent Stefani as ambassador to the Holy See. The Vatican did not accept his credentials, but did not explicitly reject him. Mr Stefani, who is President Read more
Former priest never gave up on serving others
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014
Philip Birch passed away recently in Christchurch. He had been diagnosed with cancer at the end of last year. Birch, a former priest, was a resident of Mt Victoria for more than 20 years, and an active member of St Joseph’s Parish. In the 1980s, while still in priestly ministry, he worked as a teacher Read more
NY cardinal doesn’t object to gay group in St Patrick’s parade
Friday, September 5th, 2014
New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan has not objected to a gay group being allowed to march under its own banner in the city’s St Patrick’s Day parade next year. Cardinal Dolan, who is archbishop of New York, is also the grand marshal for the parade on March 17. The parade committee chose OUT@NBCUniversal -a lesbian, Read more
Hawke’s Bay gay youth group fails despite church support
Tuesday, August 12th, 2014Efforts to establish a support group for gay Hawke’s Bay youth have failed because of a lack of public support. Despite help from Trinity Methodist Church in Napier for the GayOk group, backing from local schools, funding bodies and the wider community was not forthcoming. “There is a real stigma around homosexuality in Hawke’s Bay Read more
Baptising children of gay couples – a new battleground?
Tuesday, July 1st, 2014
Despite numerous controversies over dismissing gay Catholics from church posts and the U.S. hierarchy’s campaign against same-sex marriage, Catholic leaders have carefully, if quietly, avoided doing anything to block gay couples from having their children baptised. But a move by a bishop in Wisconsin to route all such decisions through his office is raising questions Read more
Love: listening and respecting
Friday, May 23rd, 2014
Everybody knows that same-sex marriage and homosexual acts are contrary to Catholic moral teaching. Yet that same teaching also says that gay and lesbian people must be treated with “respect, sensitivity and compassion.” As more states pass laws legalising same-sex marriage, more gay and lesbian Catholics are entering into these unions. This leaves some Catholics Read more
The Church is a community of sinners
Tuesday, May 20th, 2014
In a recent interview with the world’s media when he was on a flight back to Rome from Brazil last July, Pope Francis answered a question about homosexuality by saying: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” Only God knows the secrets of each human Read more