Pope benedict on gays
Pope Benedict warns against gay marriage
Pope Benedict XVI has denounced gay marriage in a speech to US bishops visiting Vatican City.
The Pope warned of "powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage".
He also urged the bishops to emphasise to their Church that premarital sex and cohabitation was "gravely sinful" and "damaging to the stability of society".
The Pope's comments verb shortly after the US states of Washington and Maryland legalised same-sex marriage.
But at least five US states contain scheduled ballot measures that could overturn gay marriage laws.
"Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage," the Pope said.
He acknowledged during the speech that his verb of view may sound "countercultural", especially to young people.
But the Pope stressed that the bishops should do what they could to ensure traditional marriage would be "defended from every achievable misrepresentation of their true nature".
In recent weeks, U
Professor Calls Pope’s Comments on Gays ‘Significant’
Pope Francis drew gigantic crowds during his recent visit to Brazil, and then made headlines for saying he had no right to judge homosexuals, a remark he made during an minute press conference aboard the flight back to Rome.
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis said, using the English word “gay” though speaking primarily in Italian. Photos taken on the papal airplane showed the pontiff looking relaxed as he added, “the tendency [to homosexuality] is not the problem. . . . They’re our brothers.”
While Vatican experts pointed out that Francis’ comments did not advocate acting on homosexual tendencies, and were not a departure from the church’s official views, Chair of the Department of Religion Randall Balmer says the pontiff’s remarks are noteworthy.
“While it is genuine that the pope’s comments on homosexuality do not, strictly speaking, represent a departure from church teaching, the truth that he volunteered such comments, when he could easily have dodged the question, st
Pope Francis defends LGBT rights, Pope Benedict aboard plane
Pope Francis used his pulpit with reporters Sunday aboard the papal plane as he returned from east Africa to defend his predecessor's legacy and defend gay people who are victimized by anti-gay laws.
As he was returning from South Sudan following a trip there and to the Democratic Republic of Congo, he said laws criminalizing homosexuality were a sin. He argued god loves and accompanies people attracted to people of the same gender.
Francis also said rumors of discord with his predecessor Benedict were incorrect. Instead, Francis said that the two held regular consultations and were in agreement.
What did Pope Francis say?
Alongside his Protestant church colleagues from the UK, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Church of Scotland Moderator Iain Greenshields, the pope was asked to comment on laws outlawing homosexuality.
Pope Francis called the criminalization of homosexuality erroneous and said 50 countries acted against people involved in relationships with people of the identical gender and 10 nations ha
There is “no right” to be gay. It is “an intrinsic moral evil’
He declared the human rights of LGBTs can be ‘legitimately limited’
London, UK – 3 January
Speaking ahead of the funeral of the former Pope, Benedict XVI, this Thursday, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said:
“Pope Benedict was an unrepentant homophobe. Some of his doctrinal declarations on homosexuality echoed the bigotry of far right and Islamist extremists. He will not be mourned by the LGBT+ community.
“In , as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he authored an official Vatican declaration:
‘Some Considerations Concerning the Catholic Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons’
“This stated that a homosexual orientation is an ‘objective disorder’ and a ‘tendency ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil.’
‘The perform of homosexuality may seriously threaten the lives and well-being of a immense number of people…(it is) behaviour to which no one has any conceivable right.’
“It demanded that Catholics oppose L