UNITED STATES
Washington Post
By John Gehring, Published: August 1
Something unexpected and extraordinary is happening in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is rescuing the faith from those who hunker down in gilded cathedrals and wield doctrine like a sword. The edifice of fortress Catholicism – in which progressive Catholics, gay Catholics, Catholic women and others who love the church but often feel marginalized by the hierarchy – is starting to crumble.
While that analysis carries a hint of hyperbole, a pastor with a natural instinct for engaging people and leading by example is now steering the ship at the Vatican. The change of tone and style in Francis’s papacy is striking. In recent decades, many Catholics got the message that a “smaller, purer church” was the top-down model preferred by Rome. A new spirit not felt since the reforming Second Vatican Council began five decades ago is now stirring in the air. …
Some have falsely accused gay priests of causing the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Pope Francis clearly rejects that ugly slander. His words also stand in contrast to a 2005 Vatican document, which said that men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” should not be ordained or allowed in the seminary. Pope Francis seems to be sending a message that being a good priest has nothing to do with sexual orientation, a point obvious to most of us in the pews but a revelation to some hard-liners.
In addition to his comments about gay clergy, Pope Francis told reporters that the church must do a better job reaching out to women. While he did not open the door to conversations about female clergy, Francis insisted that women play a central role in the Catholic faith. “We don’t yet have a truly deep theology of women in the church,” he admitted.
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