Rome Pride took place 9 June (Photo: @romaprideofficial | Instagram)
Better late than never, the Vatican has recognised the LGBT world for the first time, in a bid to position the Catholic church as more inclusive.
Man in ‘frock’ denies validity of gay families.
Vatican wants to align with young people
Some Vatican officials made the assertion that ‘LGBT youth’ wanted to ‘benefit from greater closeness’ with the Church and ‘experience greater care by the Church’.
Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the secretary general of the Vatican’s synod office, told reporters that the LGBT reference was deployed because it had been used by young people and the church was following suit.
“We are open. We don’t want to be closed in on ourselves,” he said.
The shift marks a departure from previous language used by the Vatican. In the past it has used terms such as “persons with homosexual tendencies”, while more recent documents have used the term ‘homosexuals’.
Cloistered views: Vatican moving slowly towards inclusiveness.
Pope Francis has also used the word ‘gay’ at press conferences and in interviews.
The report was released ahead of the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, due to take place in October. One of the topics on the agenda will be ‘Young people, the faith and vocational discernment’.
‘The Synod’s primary aim is to make the whole Church aware of her important and not at all optional task of accompanying every young person, without exclusion, towards the joy of love, said Cardinal Baldisseri.
However, the move comes just days after Pope Francis angered LGBT groups by saying that gay families weren’t ‘valid’.
Those comments were made last weekend when the Pope attended a meeting on Saturday with Italian group Forum delle Famiglie.
Then, in a Vatican document published on Tuesday, senior Church figures gave reference to LGBT, which some may interpret as a way of making amends for the comments denying the validity of gay families.
In a separate interview published on Wednesday, the 266th Pope also reaffirmed that women could still not become priests.
‘Yes, we must give them [women] a role, but this is not enough,’ he told the Reuters news agency. ‘With sacred orders, you can’t do anything because dogmatically it doesn’t go – and John Paul II was clear and closed the door, and I won’t turn on this.’
