Pope Francis asks parents of gay children to support and not condemn them

Support your children if they are gay, said Pope Francis to parents on Wednesday (January 26) at his weekly audience. He urged parents of gay children not to condemn but to be a source of support to them.

Pope Francis gave this advice while making unscripted comments at his weekly audience while talking about the problems parents can face in raising children. One of those issues could be when “parents who see different sexual orientations in their children” and they are grappling with how to handle this, how they need to accompany their children, and not hide behind an attitude of condemnation, said the Pope, according to a Reuters report.

This is not the first time the Pope has made such comments giving the impression that he is more open to the gay community than others before him. Earlier, he had said gays have a right to be accepted by their families as children and siblings.

Also, he had said that the Church cannot expect same sex marriage but can support civil union laws. He said this in a documentary titled “Francesco”, about his life and teachings. These civil union laws can provide gay partners joint rights in areas of pensions and health care and inheritance issues.

“Homosexual people have a right to be in a family. They are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable over it,” he had observed.

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Even as the LGBTQ community was happy with his comments, last year in March, the Vatican issued a document forbidding Catholic priests to bless same-sex unions. This had disappointed LGBT+ Catholics who were hoping that under Pope Francis things would change.

However, in many countries such as the USA, many parishes and ministers had begun blessing same-sex unions. But the conservatives in the Christian church are worried about the “mixed signals” the Pope is sending on this issue. He has even sent notes of appreciation to priests and nuns who minister gay Catholics.

In fact, last month, the Vatican had apologised for “causing pain to the entire LGBTQ community” when they had removed a link that provided resource material from a Catholic gay rights advocacy group. That material was to prepare for a Vatican meeting in 2023 on the Church’s future course of direction.

Ultimately, the Church is imparting the message that gays should be treated with respect and that, while same-sex acts are sinful, same-sex tendencies are not.