Pope Francis: The People’s Pope
Father Collins: Uh-huh.
Christopher Buck: And Pope Francis made that famous quote that,” if they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them”.
Father Collins: Sure.
Christopher Buck: Does the LGBT community have a champion in Pope Francis?
Father Collins: I would love to say yes and take credit for him, but I’m not sure because he is not into judgment. He’s only into trying to see what we have in common and how we can all get on together and march along hand in hand, arm in arm.
No, he’s got pretty straightforward ideas about the traditional definition of marriage between man and woman and having children. But, you know, the reality also is that the world is changing and the Christian response has to modulate, as well.
And there’s no point in just saying, in 50, 100 years’ time, when in many parts of the world marriage has been completely redefined, just saying, well, we’re just going to stick by our sacramental view. You know, we have to be very careful about that, as well.
So, I think Pope Francis will be very keen to make sure that all Christians feel comfortable, and, in particular, a minority group of gay people who for many, many years have suffered criminalization and horrendous abuse, even physical abuse, that that would come to an end.
Christopher Buck: You can see that change in society here in the United States as recently as a few years ago. The public perception as far as legalized gay marriage has changed from the majority of people against that to the position that love is love, and God is love, and that therefore, how can God not sanction a union of two people who love each other.
Father Collins: Exactly, exactly. And, yeah, and curiously, in Ireland, we had a referendum in May, and the referendum changed the definition of marriage in Ireland by 62 percent in favor. Okay, that still leaves 40 percent not in favor.
