A letter from Pope Francis provides guidelines on LGBT acceptance under church law. An American priest expects the result to be ‘messy’ problems for Catholics.
In a November letter to Brazilian Bishop José Negri, Pope Francis laid out rules for transgender and LGBT engagement in the Catholic church.
Bishop Negri had asked the pontiff several questions on how the church should respond to transgender and homosexual-identifying individuals.
Under the pope’s new clarifications of rules for the church, some “transsexual” Catholics are allowed to be baptized, become godparents to children, and act as witnesses at weddings.
Although the Nov. 3 letter uses “transsexual” in the original Italian, the letter—when translated into English—uses the word “transgender” in its title, according to the Rev. Brown, a Catholic priest with a background in church law.
Using a pseudonym, Father Brown agreed to speak to The Epoch Times on the condition of anonymity because it would give him more freedom to comment, he said. The Epoch Times verified his position in the church.
Consequences for Conservatives
In recent years, Church authorities have fired conservative clergy outspoken in their opposition to liberal ideology.
Recently, the pope dismissed Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, from his duties. The conservative bishop had spoken against the pope’s welcoming of LGBT people into the church.
The bishop also refused to cease celebrating the Catholic mass in Latin after the pope ordered restrictions on it. And he criticized the pope’s closed-door debate on women in church governance.
The pope also recently punished conservative Cardinal Raymond Burke, as well, revoking his right to a subsidized Vatican apartment and salary. Francis told senior Vatican officials he made this move because Cardinal Burke was a source of “disunity” in the church.
The 86-year-old pope has a reputation for admiring progressive politics. He has signed petitions for climate change and called conservatives who oppose his political positions “backward.”
In November, the pontiff welcomed more than 150 men who identify as women as his guests at a luncheon in the Vatican auditorium as part of the Catholic World Day of the Poor. Many in the group of transgender-identifying guests work as prostitutes.
The pope has reached out to them before.
By Jackson Elliott
