Former Gay-Priest in Argentina Asks Pope to Renew the Church's Moral Teaching on Sexuality
By Gerard O'Connell
Pope Francis’ remarks on gays, when he spoke to reporters on the plane returning from Rio, have sparked considerable discussion worldwide, and have been welcomed by many in the homosexual and lesbian community.
One member of that community, a former gay-priest from Mendoza, Argentina, Andres Gioeni, has written a letter to the pontiff urging him to “deepen the opening and renew the Church’s moral teaching on sexuality”.
He did so after hearing Pope Francis say, “If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them? They shouldn't be marginalized. The tendency [to homosexuality] is not the problem ... they are our brothers."
Gioeni told La Nacion, the Argentinean daily paper that Francis reads: “I wrote to him because I believe there is a ray of hope in the response that he gave about not judging gays. I see humility and an opening in him”.
He revealed that he had left the priesthood to become an actor and author after discovering his homosexuality, and was now celebrating “the fresh air” that has come with Pope Francis.
In the letter, published on his Facebook account, he says he dares to present himself as “a spokesman for a great many of the people who belong to the homosexual community”, and asks Pope Francis, “simply, with humility” that he “encourage, stimulate and promote a deepening of the theology of sexual morality about (regarding) the place and experience of the homosexual person”.
He tells Francis, “Once I was a Catholic priest, a pastor, and shared the missionary spirit and the call for an opening in the Church”. He then explained how he decided to leave the priesthood after two and a half years, “when I discovered my own homosexual tendency and admitted that it was impossible for me to exercise the priestly ministry in celibacy.” He confided that he is now “happy and realized” and, for the past ten years, has been living with a partner of the same sex.
He told La Nacion that he thinks the Pope should have said something about the condom when he spoke to young people at Rio because, he said, young people will not stop having sexual relations, but because of the Church’s message about the condoms they run a big risk of infection by not being protected. Moreover, he would like the Pope to not condemn homosexuality and to allow the use of contraceptives.
In his letter, he made clear that he does not pretend or expect the Pope to renounce Church teaching, rather he hopes that he “can help” the Church “to go forward by growing and adjusting itself to the new paradigms of the modern world which challenge us to find new responses.”
“Is it true - he asks the Pope – that the love of two persons of the same sex does not reflect anything of the love of God?”
He also asks him why “the Church by its silence allows the ongoing stigmatization of so many young people in many countries” where they are also murdered “only because of their (sexual) orientation?”
He concludes by asking Pope Francis to help the gay community to discover how they “can go forward in the faith” without renouncing their ‘experience of love’.
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