Op-Ed Column: Gay Catholics Still in Exile Under Pope Francis

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Frank Bruni

The Pope by Ben Wiseman for The New York Times

HONEYMOON isn’t a word usually associated with pontiffs, but Pope Francis is having an extraordinary one. Last week Time magazine named him its person of the year, saying that he had given fresh hope to many Catholics estranged by the church’s censorious ways. The magazine noted the absence of harsh condemnation in his mentions of divorced couples, of women seeking abortions and of gay people, including his statement that “if a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge.” From all of this, Time concluded that he had lifted the church “above the doctrinal police work so important to his recent predecessors.” Well, they didn’t get the memo in the suburbs of Philadelphia,...Little Rock,...[or] Atlanta. The church’s treatment of gays and lesbians is especially rife with mixed messages and hypocrisy. [link]