Remo Casilli/Reuthers
Juan Carlos Cruz, a key whistleblower in Chile’s most famous case of clerical sex abuse, spent three days with Pope Francis at the Vatican in April, in which he discussed his sexuality and the abuse he suffered at the hands of a Chilean priest. In describing his time with the Pope to CNN, Cruz said: “You know Juan Carlos, that does not matter. God made you like this. God loves you like this. The Pope loves you like this and you should love yourself and not worry about what people say.”[1] The New York Times reported that the Pope said[2] “You have to be happy with who you are. God made you this way and loves you this way, and the pope loves you this way.” To the BBC, Juan Carlos Cruz reported that the pope said, “He said you have to understand that God made you this way and he loves you, and the Pope loves you and you have to love yourself.”[3] Looks like he did it again.
What we don’t have is a direct quote from Pope Francis. Nor do we have any comment from the Vatican or the Catholic News Agency on this latest, what looks like another misstep that is clearly outside the official position of the Roman Catholic Church as reflected in the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church.
“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”[4]
What we have here, as Dr. Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Seminary, in his “daily briefing,” broadcast, has described, as “another nod another wink.” (“for the Roman Catholic Church to move… and for many to change the pastoral practice”)[5] Referring to the Pope’s comments that God made people gay, Father James Martin, an American Jesuit priest, whose 2017 book “Building a Bridge” urged greater ties between the church and the LGBTQ community said to the LA Times;
“This is a big deal, I cannot remember the pope making a comment about gay people being born that way… “Pope Francis has repeated what all reputable biologists and psychologists say — you don’t choose your sexual orientation. And that is a great comfort to many gay and lesbian Catholics who have been told by priests that they have chosen their orientation and are therefore guilty.“[6]
Father Martin doesn’t think though, that represents any change at the moment in Catholic Church teaching.
What I find so interesting is the silence of any official comment on this incident. Again, Father Martin, speaking to the LA Times said, “ We have to distinguish between something the pope said on the record and a conversation.” So there’s the wiggle room. We don’t have a direct quote, “on the record,” from Pope Francis, just a report of a conversation. This allows those who have to answer questions on this latest story enough ambiguity to either accuse the press of bias and/or outright lying and then just quote the RCC official position and refer to the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church while ignoring a pattern from this pontiff that has become obvious.
But as we look at this latest incident there are a number of problems that come up besides what looks like a softening of the RCC’s position of homosexuality from the numerous “reported” quotes from Pope Francis.
Does God create some people as homosexuals? Is the person to remain gay and then celibate? How does a person caught up in the desires of same-sex attraction find any redemptive hope with a claim that God made you that way and now wants you to remain celibate while you burn with these passions? The answer to that question is the all-important one.
So, did God create a person homosexual? If you accept the world’s view that a person is born a homosexual, then the so-called logic would seem to follow. But all they have are assumptions and proclamations that that is so. And even if they found some kind of link (which they haven’t), that would only prove the effects of the fall, not God creating a person with the affections of bondage. There are no conclusive scientific studies, just the sociological preferences of our age. Such is the assumption of the pope’s statement in 2013: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” He would leave them there. This is not Biblical compassion nor is it Biblically accurate to say that God would create someone with same-sex desires and then require life-long celibacy.
Frankly, we really have a limited understanding of what might cause sexual dysphoria. Biblically, it is clearly linked to the fall and its effects, our own fallen hearts, the flesh, the attractions and desires of this world, and the lies of Satan himself. But to say God created a person as a homosexual is not compassion and is a clear denial of the bondage-breaking power of the Gospel. It is the Gospel where we see the alternative to the bondage of sin.
Romans 8:13 (ESV) 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
John 10:10 (ESV) 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
But in the Gospel, we find that when we repent of our sin and trust through faith alone, by grace alone, in the merits of Christ on Calvary’s cross, we are regenerated ( John 3:6,8; Titus 3:5), the old man is killed (Romans 6:6), we are identified with Christ (Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 1:27), and we become a “new creation” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) through His reconciling work (vs.18), and our stony heart is replaced with a heart of flesh (Ezekial 11:19).
Those who have been regenerated are those, who as they look upon Him, are transformed from glory to glory.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV) 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
So, it is no wonder that Paul includes those who were once in bondage to this kind of sexual sin as those who through Christ were “washed, sanctified, and justified.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (ESV) 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
That is what they were. But now they are “washed, sanctified, and justified.”
Nor is God’s saving love unconditional (“God loves you the way you are”). His saving love is VERY conditional. It is based upon our repentance (Matthew 9:13; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32; 131,3,5) from sin and our trust only in Christ as our Savior and Lord (Romans 10:9-13, Ephesians 2:8; Titus 3:5). Only then can we be “in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6).
The reported comments of Pope Francis are not ones of compassion or theological truth, but rather ones grounded in the popularity of this world system that only promise bondage and death.
-Michael Holtzinger
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/21/europe/pope-francis-gay-comments-intl/index.html
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/world/europe/pope-francis-gays-god-made-you-this-way-.html
[3] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44215996
[4] Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XV!), The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, Ignatius Press, 1996, par. 2357, pg. 566
[5] https://albertmohler.com/2018/05/22/briefing-5-22-18/
[6] http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-pope-chile-gay-20180520-story.html
Some Resources:
We cannot Be Silent By Albert Mohler Jr.
Finally Free, Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace By. Heath Lambert