“Um,
no?” William was confused about where this conversation was going.
“Do
you know any drug dealers?”
“No.”
“Any
crack-heads?”
“What’s
a crack head?”
“Any
exotic dancers?”
“Of
course not!”
“How
about any prostitutes?”
‘Is
this a trick question?””
'
Any gays or lesbians'?
“None
that I know of!”
He
was more than a little bit indignant now, as if he was trying to indict him somehow.
He got a sad look on his face. “Neither do I said the other. Perhaps that’s the
problem with the church and us as leaders of the church today.”
When
he left Buenos Aires for Rome, Cardinal Bergoglio, before his election as head
of the Catholic Church, he was wearing a pair of shoes so shabby that friends
insisted on buying him a new pair. Once elected Pope he had three option; wear
those left by his predecessor Pope Benedict Pope Benedict XVI, select from the
waiting pairs of red papal loafers in all sizes to prepare for every
contingency, or select a different pair symbolic of his high church status and
Sovereign of the Vatican state.
Philippians
2:3 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility
value others
above
yourselves…”
|
José
Octavio Bordón, a former Argentine ambassador to the US who has known the new
Pope for more than 30 years, told the Financial Times. “He is a Pope with
sandals on.” A Jesuit intellectual, he is known for his compassion and
practicality as well as for sitting in the back row at church events,
travelling by bus, visiting slums and speaking out against poverty.
Despite
being a conservative – he was a fierce opponent of gay marriage, which was
legalised in Argentina in 2010. Until the mid-20th century, engaging in same
sex acts generally carried broad social condemnation, particularly where
Christian influence has been dominant and most notably in countries with a
Catholic Church majority. What then could the LGBT communities expect?
In
his first appearance before the faithful in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis announced
that the cardinals had gone to the “ends of the earth” to select him, smiled….
and said casually: “See you soon”. The new Pope’s servant role life appeared
unaltered from his Argentinian Cardinal customary austere life style swapping
an apartment for the grandeur of the Vatican as he created his own style. A few
days later he stopped personally at a clerical guest-house where he had been
staying, a few steps from Piazza Navona, to pick up his suitcases and “pay his
bill,” as he told cardinals the night before. Pope Francis did it his way.
GLAAD President Herndon Graddick (Gay & Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation)
was quick to respond to the March election of Francis in a statement saying,
‘For decades the Catholic hierarchy has been in need of desperate reform. In
his life, Jesus condemned gays zero times. In Pope Benedict’s short time in the
papacy, he made a priority of condemning gay people routinely…. We hope this
Pope will trade in his red shoes for a pair of sandals and spend a lot less
time condemning and a lot more time foot-washing.’
Having
been plagued with scandals, hundreds of sordid allegations the Vatican was in
desperate need of renewal and a makeover. Was Pope Francis God’s man for the
21st century? Would Pope Francis be the man to lead Christians and the churches
in realigning Christianity to retain its place as the richest religion in the
world and to keep it from becoming increasingly more passive, confused and
anemic?
And
then, as if on cue, 'Christopher? It's Pope
Francis'.
Christophe Trutino had written from Toulouse, France to the Pope
to emotionally explain his inner turmoil in reconciling his sexuality with his
faith, explaining how he was terrified he was going to hell for being gay. The
25-year-old said that due to the ongoing row over France’s battle over same-sex
marriage, he was struggling to stay a believer in the Catholic faith.
"
Really? " He replied : "Yes."
“I received the letter that you sent me.
You need to remain courageous and continue to believe and pray and stay good,”
the Pope told him during the conversation in Spanish.
“Your homosexuality. It
doesn’t matter. One way or another , we are all children of God. This is why we
must continue to be good," the Pope told him.
Trutino said the phone call ended with the Pope asking him to
pray for him and that he would do the same in return. “When I hung up the
phone, I was completely filled with emotion," he told local
paper Midi Libre. "I was shaking.
At the same time, the conversation was very relaxed. It was like a call from a
friend, nice, very human.”
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