POPE Francis has asked the Catholic Church to apologise to lesbians and gays for the way they have been treated over the years adding that it had no right to judge homosexuals who should not be discriminated against.
Speaking in Armenia during a recent visit, Pope Francis said homosexuals deserve to be respected and asked the Catholic Church to seek forgiveness them. Others groups of people he said the Catholic Church had marginalised, whose forgiveness it should also seek included women, the poor and children forced into labour.
In 2013, Pope Francis reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s position that homosexual acts were sinful, but homosexual orientation was not. Since assuming office, Pope Francis has been hailed by many in the gay community for his positive attitude towards homosexuals while some conservative Catholics have criticised him for making comments they described as ambiguous about sexual morality.
Pope Francis said, “I will repeat what the catechism of the Roman Catholic Church says, that they should not be discriminated against, that they should be respected, accompanied pastorally. I think that the Roman Catholic Church not only should apologise to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologise to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by being forced to work.
"It must also apologise for having blessed so many weapons. If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Meanwhile the Anglican Communion Church of Nigeria and the Redeemed Christian Church of God have condemned the Pope’s tacit support for homosexuality, saying his call for apology was unfounded. Anglican Bishop of Remo, Rt Reverend Michael Fape, said Pope Francis’s call contradicted the biblical stand on homosexuality and urged that the act should not be explained away in the guise of human rights.
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