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Pope Francis Believes Christians Should Seek Forgiveness For Mistreating Gays

By Trisha Faulkner
Published on: 09:29 PST, Jun 26, 2016

On Sunday, Pope Francis said Christians and the Roman Catholic Church need to seek forgiveness for the way they’ve treated homosexuals. According to Reuters, Pope Francis believes the Church has a lot to apologize for in addition to treating the homosexuals poorly. He also believes the Church should seek forgiveness for treating women poorly, turning a blind eye to child labor, and blessing weapons.

During an hour-long conversation with reporters, which has become somewhat of a trademark of Pope Francis as he travels, reporters asked if he agreed with the comments a German Roman Catholic cardinal had made recently about whether or not the Church should be apologizing to the gays for their awful treatment.

Reuters reported Pope Francis had a sad look on his face when one reporter asked if he believed the Orlando Pulse shooting, which killed 49 people this month, made the apology from the Roman Catholic Church more of an urgent issue. The Catholic News reported that the question involving the Orlando Pulse shooting appeared to cause the Pope pain.

The Pope took a moment to reflect on the teachings of homosexuals at the church.

“Should not be discriminated against. They should be respected, accompanied pastorally.

“I [Pope Francis] think that the Church not only should apologize… to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologize to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by (being forced to) work. It must apologize for having blessed so many weapons.”

The Roman Catholic Church teaches individuals that homosexual tendencies are not sinful, but the acts of homosexuality are sinful. It also teaches that homosexuals should try to remain pure.

“The questions is: if a person who has that condition, who has good will, and who looks for God, who are we to judge?”

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi clarified that when Pope Francis said “has that condition” he did not mean that being homosexual was a medical condition. He means “a person in that situation.” He felt the need to clarify as the word “condition” means “situation” in Italian.

“We Christians have to apologize for so many things, not just for this (treatment of gays) but we must ask for forgiveness, not just apologize! Forgiveness! Lord, it is a word we forget so often!”

Pope Francis has been praised and hailed in a lot of the gay communities as he has been the most merciful pope when it comes to homosexuality. Even when more conservative Catholics criticize him for making comments about sexual morality that are ambiguous at best.

According to Pope Francis, some cultures and countries find homosexual demonstrations to be offensive. He, however, does not believe that is justification or proper grounds for discriminating against homosexuals.

During the banter, Pope Francis never went into detail about what he meant by the Church needing to seek forgiveness for blessing weapons. However, it is likely a reference to some church followers who backed wars in the past.

Pope Francis did deny any reports during the conversation that Pope Benedict, who resigned back in 2013, had any influence inside of the Vatican.

“There is only one Pope.”

Pope Francis did, however, praise Benedict for having is back. There were rumored to be church officials who went to Benedict to complain that Pope Francis was being too liberal. According to the rumors, Benedict was supposed to have sent them packing.

Do you think Pope Francis is right? Should the Roman Catholic Church and Christians be apologizing for the way they’ve been treating the gays? Is it right to discriminate someone just because you think their choice in lifestyle is sinful?

[Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images]

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