Them's Fightin' Words by Pope Francis

More fascinating and wonderful things from Pope Francis emerged during his recent trip to Brazil. Today, let's focus on two very surprising statements he made regarding women and homosexuals.

Visit: Pope Says Gays Must Not Be Judged or Marginalized

Let's start with women because that one is a lot simpler to discuss. Pope Frances says that he wants to see women assume higher-level administrative roles in the Catholic Church. He stopped short of agreeing to make women into priests. That's not quite so radical, as this involvement of women has been slowly evolving over the years, but it's good to hear the Pope support it. He is restrained by an interpretation of the Bible that shows Jesus choosing men as his apostles. I don't favor that interpretation. I believe that Jesus' selections were based on what was feasible in his culture during the period in which he lived. Since that time, society has evolved considerably, and now women can be prime ministers, secretaries of state, Queens, and—I hope one day—President of the United States. I'd love to see a female Pope.

Now here's where things get really interesting: Pope Francis made this startling comment regarding homosexual priests:

If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?

He also stated that homosexuality is not a crime and that we should not marginalize people who are gay.

Hmmmm. Is homosexuality a sin, then? Well, again, constrained by Catholic theology, the Pope says it is a sin, but still affirms that this does not justify maltreatment of gay people. Here, again, I differ with the theology. My definition of sin is doing something that will harm oneself or another entity (person, animal, nature). The other things that people call sins are merely expressions of cultural disgust at practices that have long been frowned upon. Human beings look at such practices and then attribute their own disgust to G-d.

Indeed, some scholars argue that homosexuality was not discussed by Jesus but appeared more in the Old Testament. We are evolving away from disgust to understanding and acceptance. Perhaps in the future, people won't even blink an eye at this. They will understand it as a natural part of being human with a certain set of genes. 

I believe that we sin by not being compassionate and understanding and by not fully accepting people who are different from us. When gay people marry, it upholds the institution of marriage as the gold standard. It makes me happy to know that people I love can enjoy what I am enjoying in my happy heterosexual marriage. My marriage is childless for physical and economic reasons. It is nonetheless a great marriage that was not formed primarily to procreate in this sadly overpopulated world. It was formed because two souls felt connected by G-d and wanted to share their life and love in this lifetime. So, if people love each other, I can't call that sin regardless of their genders. 

Despite these constraints, I am glad nonetheless that the Pope is pushing the envelope on these issues. He cannot make women priests and tell people that practicing homosexuality is not a sin—even if he thought so, he could not do these things! If he did, there would be a huge schism in the Church, and it would simply fracture. That is the last thing that this Pope wants. He wants inclusiveness as far as he can push it so that more people will want to be Catholics. What is more, he says that he welcomes the ideas of people who disagree with him. That is remarkable. None of this papal infallibility nonsense.  This is his compromise between the treacherous waters of Catholic theology and changes in our understanding of what it means to be human.

For a person of his generation and from the priesthood up through the ranks to the papacy, what he had to say was not bad at all. In Uganda, where the government and the priesthood hate homosexuals to the point of wanting to murder them, people must be freaking out. Their reaction to Pope Francis' words is likely to be: "them's fightin' words." Good for Pope Francis!