Blog 3

Pope Francis recently announced that, "Catholics should stop judging gay people and focusing incessantly on sexuality" (The Significance of the Pope's Interview). This announcement made my Pope Francis is said to be a new hope for the LGBT community. In the article it states that, "the real significance of the pope's interview is that it stands to return to the nation a moral vocabulary that the religious right has stolen and twisted for over a generation, depriving us of the capacity to think and act clearly about a range of moral issues."  This statement is simply saying that over the generations people of the religious right have been using their religion to dictate politics. These politics have focused on gay/lesbian rights for a long time now. Although Pope Francis made this announcement it does not mean that the Catholic church will simply begin to accept and abandon their beliefs of gay-marriage and equality. Pope Francis also makes a great point when saying that when we talk of sexuality we have to talk about it in context. Pope France's words were significant when he stated that, "Otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards," when speaking of finding a new balance. 


When reading this article one could interpret it in different ways. Depending on one's religious views and beliefs this announcement by Pope Francis could either be enlightening or disheartening. In class the class readings one can find where most of the resistance to the change of the definition of traditional marriage is due to the religious institutions. Having read this it would be simple to conclude that one would be ashamed of Pope Francis's announcement, and feel as if he has gone against his faith. Another feeling one might take towards this article is anger, anger that someone held so high in prestige could have such thoughts and feelings towards this issue. In class we also read that, "Sexual orientation involves a person's feelings and sense of identity."When reading this article one might take a stance and say Pope Francis did the right thing, for religion has nothing to do with being gay/lesbian. One might also take a stance saying that one's religion should not give them the right to take away the rights of a certain group of people. One might say that your sense of identity is not something that can be turned off or on. Who you love cannot simply be changed overnight, however, one can disaffiliate from their church over the night. There are many different reactions one could have from reading this article, whether they are Catholic or not. 



Maria Shropshire
SOC-202-03
9/27/13 9:12 am


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathaniel-frank/the-significance-of-the-p_b_3976667.html