Bill Donohue comments on how some are spinning the pope’s words:
The Advocate, an influential gay publication, has named Pope Francis “Person of the Year.” It reached its conclusion by citing the pope’s remark, “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?” This comment is directly consistent with the Church’s teachings on the subject. “They [homosexuals] must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” is what the Catholic Catechism says.
The Catechism also says that Scripture “presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity.” The pope, when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, spoke against gay marriage, saying such an arrangement threatens the “survival of the family,” causing children to be “discriminated” against. He even said that gay marriage was the work of the devil: such proposals are not “a mere legislative project (this is only the instrument) but a ‘movement’ of the father of lies.”
The gay community is bent on conflating sexual orientation with sexuality. This is false. There is nothing in Catholic doctrine that condemns homosexuals anymore than it condemns heterosexuals: it condemns such acts as fornication, homosexuality, and adultery.
The Advocate also lists “9 Catholics Who Need to Listen to the Pope.” Actually, most are organizations or communities. Three individuals are listed: Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Bishop Thomas Tobin, and me. It takes exception to my statement, that “[L]ess than 5 percent of priests involved in molestation are pedophiles.” I took that fact from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice study on the subject. To its credit, The Advocate quoted me as saying, “[I] am against gay bashing.”
Recently, the media promoted the idea that the pope may appoint women cardinals. Here is what the pope said last week. “Women in the Church must be valued, not clericalized. Whoever thinks of women as cardinals suffers a bit from clericalism.” Predictably, the media are dead silent on the pope’s rejection of women cardinals. The spin is pure politics.
