On
the Holy Father’s Press Conference:
Renouncing a right to "judge" others is
something that goes back to Jesus. It does not mean a refusal to recognize the
moral character of others' behavior. One can form a moral judgment that what
someone else is doing is wrong (Jesus obviously does not forbid that) without
having or showing malice toward them. Francis’ statement that homosexuals
should not be marginalized is old news- in keeping with the Holy See's approach
to the subject, as 1992 Vatican document On the
Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons. His
statement that same-sex attraction "is not the problem," is also
nothing new. "The problem," is going beyond merely having a sinful
tendency--a temptation to which one is subject. Obviously, temptations are a
problem, but if we resist temptation we do not sin. "The problem," on
this understanding, is giving in to the temptation and sinning
or--worse--building an ideology around the sin and trying to advocate the sin,
thus calling evil good and good evil. The Pope’s statement that "they're
our brothers" is also not innovative. Christians, like everyone, have
fought to resist acting on every sort of temptation. Same-sex attraction is
just one temptation among numerous others, and the fact that a person suffers
from this temptation no more denies him of the status of brotherhood in Christ
than does any other. But here also is what is not new: the media are painting a fabricated picture by contrasting the
"good" Francis to the “bad" Benedict. None of Francis's remarks
are antagonistic to the approach Benedict took during his papacy. Benedict
himself (as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) was the signer of the previously
mentioned letter on the
Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, as well as the follow-up
document on non-discrimination
regarding homosexual persons.
