Fr. Roberto Pasolini, OFM Cap.
As Pope Francis has shown previously by his appointment of new cardinals, being LGBTQ-positive no longer seems to preclude church leaders from taking up Vatican positions. Today’s post highlights a few more appointments of inclusive prelates, including the papal preacher.
New Preacher of the Papal Household Offers Pro-Gay Scriptural Interpetation
On November 9th, Fr. Roberto Pasolini, OFM Cap., was named the new Preacher of the Papal Household, succeeding Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa who served in the role since 1980.
Earlier this year, Pasolini, a biblical studies professor in Italy, gave a lecture on homosexuality and Christian life. In the lecture, the friar said that it is not an “easy no” on whether the Bible includes positive examples of same-gender relationships. Citing the stories of Jonathan and David and the Roman centurion and his servant who was “very dear to him,” Pasolini recognizes that while none of these are explicitly named as such relationships (via Google Translate):
“[W]e can imagine it, we can think it, we may like to think it, but it is not written. Surely there were stories of homosexual love at the time, this is evident, so nothing prevents us from being able to think it, from being able to imagine it. . .
“And here the imagination of biblical scholars and readers of the Bible goes in a thousand directions and it is legitimate because, you understand, for a Roman centurion a sick servant is like a broom made of sorghum that no longer works, you throw it away and buy another; instead a centurion who unleashes all the friends he has to heal this servant raises a question: but why was he so dear to him? Did he work well? Maybe he worked more than the others? We could also think so, or, as some say, maybe there was a relationship between the two of them. . .It is not appropriate to think so.”
Pasolini, however, does not move on from the story of the centurion. He goes deeper, asking what it indeed would mean if Jesus gave the “greatest praise” to someone in such a relationship. In doing so, “it means that we must review all the opinions we have.” But the scripture scholar does not claim the Bible therefore is arguing for validating same-gender couples. Rather, the Bible “does not give us all the answers, because they are not necessary.” The topic is not clear in scripture, and so it needs interpretation and study. For Pasolini, Jesus’ mercy “towards people who in the area of sexuality, or in the area of those things that socially put people on the margins, manifested a great patience and mercy on the part of God.”
Pasolini also concurs with modern scholarship which negates the standard passages used to condemn homosexuality because “the Bible never speaks of homosexuality in generic terms, it deplores some concrete attitudes, some episodes, some actions, not the person.” The new papal preacher concluded this portion of the lecture by saying:
“So it seems absent in Scripture, we must recognize it, a judgment on the homosexual condition or orientation, what we today could define as homosexuality as a psychological orientation or existential condition, that is, there is no word that goes to strike this category of people, that is, those who wake up and look at a person of the same sex and feel attracted to them, because today we are talking about these people, not people who have episodes of homosexuality, but people who find themselves living something on an emotional, psychological level from which they cannot and do not want to find a distance.”
Appointments to Doctrinal Office Includes Pro-LGBTQ Theologian
Among the nearly thirty Consultors named by Pope Francis to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith earlier this fall is Fr. Maurizio Chiodi, a theologian with a very positive approach to gender and sexuality issues, The priest is a moral theologian at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute, Rome, and a member of the Synod’s Study Group 9, where many observers believe LGBTQ+ issues are to be addressed.
In 2019, Chiodi called for the church to reevaluate how it understands homosexuality, not only affirming a homosexual orientation as not sinful, but offering qualified support for same-gender relationships. He also said it was “good to offer the possibility of groups, associations or initiatives, both for homosexual persons and for their families.” In the 2019 interview, Chiodi stated, in part:
“[It] seems to me that it is difficult – indeed impossible – to give pre-packaged answers, as if from an anthropological theory one could immediately deduce all the practical answers. I believe that the relationships of homosexual couples present gaps and undeniable differences that prevent them from being equated with heterosexual couples, cancelling their diversity. Nevertheless, the moral task concerns the actual possibilities, that is to say the possible good, which takes into account the actual history of a subject.
“For this reason, I would not exclude that, under certain conditions, a homosexual couple relationship is, for that individual, the most fruitful way to live good relationships, taking into account their symbolic meaning, which is at once personal, rational and social. This happens, for example, when a stable relationship is the only way to avoid sexual vagrancy or other forms of humiliating and degrading erotic relationships or when it is a help and a stimulus to walk on the path of good relationships.”
Chiodi, who is also a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has suggested contraception may be a moral good in certain situations.
Vatican Dicastery’s Youth Advisors Include LGBTQ-Positive Member
The Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life named twenty new members to its Youth Advisory Board. Among those appointed is at least one who seek a more inclusive church.
Madeline Forde, an Australian, signed a 2022 statement of solidarity with LGBTQ+ people after that nation’s Plenary Council concluded without a “respectful discussion” of their place in the church. Affirming the work of Acceptance chapters and Rainbow Catholics InterAgency for Ministry, the statement’s signatories, who were all participants in the Plenary Council, affirmed, in part:
“[W]e affirm the dignity, membership, and widespread contributions of LGBTIQA+ Catholics, and call on all Australian Catholics to do the same. The contribution and ministry of LGBTIQA+ Catholics who are lay, ordained, in religious or consecrated lives extends across education at all levels, in social services and relief of poverty-through. . .Those who contribute in so many powerful ways to our Australian church and wider society and who maintain their Catholic faith and identity, despite the mixed and often hurtful messages they have received, should be in no doubt how much they are valued and appreciated by an overwhelming majority of Australian Catholics.”
—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, November 26, 2024
