Francis uttered his “Who am I to judge?” comment during his first airborne press conference in 2013, signaling a new era of acceptance and welcome for gays in the church.
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Pope Francis mourned the genocide of Armenians by Ottoman-era Turks last Friday on the first of his three-day apostolic visit to the “first Christian country” on the 14th worldwide trip of his pontificate.
The remarks of Pope Francis have been welcomed from many quarters.
The context of the statement was Francis being asked if he agreed with similar statement from a German Cardinal, who, responding to the attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, recently said that the church has treated gap people poorly and should apologize to them.
He added: “I 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 has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons.”, he said.
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“While St. John Paul II apologized to several groups in 2000 – the Jewish people, indigenous peoples, immigrants and women, among them – no pope has ever come close to apologizing to the LGBT community”, Martin told CNN. “Christians should ask forgiveness for not having accompanied so many persons, many families”. He also said that one can condemn certain behaviour for the political behaviour not for the theological reasons. “They should be respected, accompanied pastorally”. He maintained that the problem is that the person who has a condition and has good will and seek God, then who are we to judge them? Certain manifestations are a bit too offensive for others, no?
