Pope Francis has said that homosexual tendencies “are not a sin,” while encouraging parents who begin “seeing rare things” in their children to “please, consult, and go to a professional,” because “it could be that he [or she] is not homosexual.”
Asked about his famous soundbite “Who am I to judge?”, the pope said, “Tendencies are not sin. If you have a tendency to anger, it’s not a sin. Now, if you are angry and hurt people, the sin is there.”
“Sin is acting, of thought, word and deed, with freedom,” Francis said.
Asked by Spanish journalist Jordi Evole if he thinks it’s a “rarity” for parents to have a homosexual child, the pope answered that “in theory, no.”
The pope’s words came in response to a question about comments he made last summer, when he said parents who detect their children have homosexual behaviors should take them to a psychiatrist.
In a new interview that aired Sunday with the Spanish news outlet La Sexta, the pope said he was “explaining that you never throw a homosexual person out of the house, but I made a distinction that when the person is very young and begins to show strange symptoms, it’s useful to go … I said to a psychiatrist, at that moment you say the word that comes out and, on top of that, in a language that is not yours.”
Full story at Crux.
More watered down theology and confusion from this man.
There’s nothing “watered down” in what the Holy Father has said here. Please do keep inappropriate, un-Catholic, uncharitable words against the Holy Father to yourself.
Sounds like the Pope should speak only Spanish in public. Also have theologically qualified translators do any necessary translations.
The fact is, God alone knows what is in our hearts and why we do what we do. He alone can truly judge righteously. That’s why Jesus warned against judging according to appearances (John 7:24). Anticipating that some might take offense, let me assure you I am judging no one. I am merely quoting from the only Judge that matters. Look inward. Work on those problems. Amen?
While that is very true. We can also make informed and accurate opinions based upon and individuals actions and words.
Yes, “by their fruits….”
The concept of sin classically has 3 components. INIQUITY, a tendency, a temptation toward behavior not from God; SIN meaning missing the mark after trying to behave correctly yet failing; TRANSGRESSION, a deliberate behavior despite knowing it is wrong. INIQUITY incurs no guilt, but is a sign of a spiritual deficit in the soul which can be remedied by the person of Jesus Christ. SIN and TRANSGRESSION incur guilt, need to be confessed, and to be remedied by our Savior who gave His life to do this for each of us
Every Sunday at Mass, we recite, “I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words . . . ” IN MY THOUGHTS. That’s what “tendencies” are.
Tendancies. The word is problematic. I don’t “think” myself into homosexuality. I am a homosexual. Period. I don’t have to think about it. I don’t have a “tendancy” to be gay, I’m just gay. If the Pope is saying that sexual orientation is not a sin, he is correct. The Catechism and many Church documents say as much. But I don’t get this term “tendancy”. It’s not the same as “thinking”.
You are playing with semantics.
Actually, Bob, I think you started with semanics when you equated two words that don’t mean the same thing. Thinking is not a tendancy, as you tried to argue.
I think of you and all people as a man or a woman as created by God. Attractions, tendencies, desires exist, and those toward having sex with members of oneʻs own sex are not from God. I never think of you as “gay”. Sexual orientation, gay ,homophobia, etc area all political words used to try to justify same sex behavior, and to shut down opposition. Jesus will fulfill you as a man or woman, not a “gay”, with His love, and free you from iniquity if you allow Him to do so.
Is being blue-eyed a political word? Is being brown haired a political word? Is being tall a political word? Is being left handed a political word. About the latter: Because the “tendancy” to be left handed was the subject of scorn for many years in Catholic schools and elsewhere. Does one “think oneself into being left handed?” It was so much the subject of scorn that anything having to do with the left was anathema while right was considered “of God”. Hence, human “rights”. Being “righteous”. The left and the word “gauche” are identical, gauche meaning left in French but also meaning “lacking ease or grace; unsophisticated and socially awkward”
Furthermore, scripture says, “never let the left hand know what the right hand (which is doing charitable things) is doing. Jesus, crucified with two sinners, chose the one to his right to say that he will share paradise with him. We say that Jesus sits at the right hand of the father. Why does the right hand of the Father show more favor than sitting at his Left hand, or at his feet? Why do we call people our “right hand man”? All because the tendancy to be left handed, which is a minority handed orientation, was once associated with the diabolical and the lesser worthy.
Sorry, but you’re wrong. “Thoughts” are one thing, but the homosexual “inclination” or “tendency”, to use the Holy Father’s word here, is quite another.
It is a sin to have impure thoughts.
People: It is not a sin to have the homosexual inclination or “tendency.” The Church has NEVER said that it was. That was the Holy Father’s point people! If you don’t agree with that, then you’re dissenting!
It is a sin to have impure thoughts. That was Jesus’s point. If you don’t agree with that, then you’re dissenting.
Anon: Regarding the sinfulness of “impure thoughts”: What makes you think that gay people and straight people are any different in their “thoughts”? Being gay (or being straight for that matter) is not a thought process. Sexual orientation (whether gay or straight) is not a product of our thoughts. It is a product of forces, genetic and environmental, that we don’t yet understand, but under no conditions is it something that comes from within ones thoughts. And no orientation more sinful than the other. This is actually Church doctrine.
The Church has always taught that it is a sin for a man to have sex with another man, married or not. It is NOT a sin for a man to have sex with his wife.
Sums it up! No need for long narrative or explanations .