The Pope, Homosexuality and Abortion in Brazil

Last Days Watchman ^ | Julio Severo

[juliosevero]

The Pope, Homosexuality and Abortion in Brazil

By Julio Severo

As reported by Daily Mail, “The pope has said that he ‘will not judge’ gay priests. Speaking to reporters on a flight back from his week-long visit to sexually permissive Brazil, Pope Francis said he ‘would not stand in judgment’ of gays in the Vatican and that they should not be discriminated against. The pontiff’s remarks about gays mark a more conciliatory approach than his predecessor. Benedict signed a document in 2005 saying that men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests.”

Speech about not judging gay priests is a surprise, considering that the massive scandal involving pedophilia in the Catholic Church is largely linked to homosexuality among priests.

But the bigger surprise, at least to pro-life leaders in Brazil, is that socialist Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is about to sign into law a pro-abortion bill, and the pope did not address any specific message about this urgent situation in Brazil. He left Brazil without speaking up against this imminent threat.

How can now Rousseff be pressured by pro-life Catholics and evangelicals when even the pope showed no willingness to tackle directly the abortion issue?

As an evangelical Christian, I think that the pope could make his controversial remark on homosexuality in another time. The absolute priority right now is to speak up against the imminence of abortion legalization in Brazil.

Why did not he speak?

Portuguese version of this article: O Papa, a Homossexualidade e o Aborto no Brasil

Source: Julio Severo in English: www.lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com

Recommended Reading:

The Pope and Abortion in Brazil

Archbishop Tutu: Rather Go to Hell Than Go to a Homophobic Heaven

[Dr. Thorne]

Saying nothing about abortion soon becomes tacit approval.

[HiTech RedNeck]

When the actual comments of Francis are looked at, it actually seems of concern that he adopted the term “gay” (he was speaking in Italian and that language does have a cognate word for homosexual so there was no need to import “gay” which is a sin-coined, sugar coated misnomer for rejoicing in iniquity). But that might be a one time slip up. Also no he didn’t say it was acceptable for a ministering member of clergy to be in homosexual sin. It sounds a lot here like he is in fact accepting the truth of the gospel promise to cleanse from sin.

[longfellowsmuse]

Perhaps the end is near after all... Regardless it is always prudent to make personal amends with God

[Tired of Taxes]

PING

Here’s another article just posted about the Pope’s comments. In the first sentence, it links to a Daily Mail article with more information.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well, I’ve heard more than once that there are claims of Roman Catholic prophecy that the number of popes will only reach the number at which Francis is at. As a fighting fundie, I do regard the Roman Catholic church as a Christian community, if a significantly erring one, and that prophecy might be spot on.

[central_va]

The Pope may be light in the loafers, just sayin’.

[HiTech RedNeck]

He sounds actually more gospel oriented than most, if not all, of the previous ones.

[Alex Murphy]

...the bigger surprise, at least to pro-life leaders in Brazil, is that socialist Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is about to sign into law a pro-abortion bill, and the pope did not address any specific message about this urgent situation in Brazil. He left Brazil without speaking up against this imminent threat.

And therefore

...pro-life groups will have a hard time to explain about the urgency and importance of the pro-abortion bill...[and]...the Catholic National Conference of Bishops of Brazil will have innocent blood in its hands.

as you posted last week

[central_va]

He IS supposed to judge, his interpretation is supposed to be final.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well, that idea began, I believe, with the very biblical concept of authority of church leaders to speak according to the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit says to call someone on sin and prescribe a course of action, you call someone on sin and prescribe a course of action. But of course obedience to the Holy Spirit is needed to exercise the authority. And that’s on a person by person and situation by situation basis and it can’t be institutionalized to an office in the Christian church.

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

Don’t freak out.

The pope said a sin, once forgiven, is forgotten by God and so must be by onlookers. Nothing new, just Christian.

He didn’t say active gay-ness was OK, just that as for any accused priest of a gay trist - he investigated and found no proof to back it, so he wouldn’t judge the man unfit. We follow that in our Constitution no?

He said if an existing priest has such inklings and does not act on them, who is he to judge...not that seminarians are allowed in with such.

Jesus wants to heap mercy on us every time we repent (repent, go and purely intend to sin to more), even if we fail, fighting it, again and again, but fighting it tooth and nail. That’s growth. You can’t grow toward Christ if you’re still always weighed down by guilt over your past failures and eveil deeds, so he says repent and be freed of the weight and regret, go and sin no more.....the dude believes this stuff that Jesus said.

He also said to remember, we’re talking sexual sin, not rape of children!

[HiTech RedNeck]

Who’s “freaking out.”

Anyhow, events like this do force persons like the Pope to realize that God can act with grace on His own without bringing the Pope into the loop.

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

The pope is not going to embarass the leader welcoming him into the country and make political hay - that will make no one reverse course or listen to his sincere input.

The pope would counsel her privately and not even bring up the issue, so she could steep in his guidence with as little political threat as possible.

Then he said to the youth....go into the streets, create a mess, freak out your diocese, start a revolution. He told bishops and priests - get out of your churches and get into the streets.

Yea, he missed a moment? I don’t think so. The Brazilians must take this fight to their own leadership....if the leadership forces it on them.

We in the US never in large enough numbers made a mess and took to the streets. We waited for our bishops and priests to martyr themselves, while they were busy counseling the post-abortive in the pews and still are.

[NKP_Vet]

He has said plenty...........

http://www.catholic.com/blog/jimmy-akin/pope-francis-on-abortion-and-homosexual-marriage

Pope Francis is on record defending the right to life for the unborn. He also has resisted framing abortion as a “religious” issue that could be set aside in favor of religious neutrality:

The moral problem of abortion is pre-religious in nature because the genetic code of the person happens in the moment of conception.

A human being is already there. I separate the topic of abortion from any religious concept. It is a scientific problem.

To not let the development continue of a being who already has all the genetic code of a human being is not ethical.

The right to life is the first of human rights.

To abort is to kill someone who cannot defend himself [On Heaven and Earth].

Homosexual marriage

In 2010, Pope Francis’s native Argentina was in the process of legalizing homosexual “marriage.” The country’s bishops took a very strong line against the measure. A statement made by then-Cardinal Bergoglio was particularly pointed.

According to British journalist Edward Pentin:

He made the statement in a letter addressed to each of the four monasteries in Argentina, asking the contemplatives to pray “fervently” that legislators be strengthened to do the right thing.

He wrote: “In the coming weeks, the Argentine people will face a situation whose outcome can seriously harm the family. . . .

“At stake is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother, and children. At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God. At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts.”

Cardinal Bergoglio continued: “Let us not be naive: this is not simply a political struggle, but it is an attempt to destroy God’s plan. It is not just a bill (a mere instrument) but a ‘move’ of the father of lies who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.”

The cardinal also noted that “today the country, in this particular situation, needs the special assistance of the Holy Spirit to bring the light of truth on to the darkness of error, it need this advocate to defend us from being enchanted by many fallacies that are tried at all costs to justify this bill and to confuse and deceive the people of good will.”

[txrefugee]

He’s not on the same page as God, Who calls homosexuality an “abomination.” Leviticus 18:22, 20:13.

[HangnJudge]

Romans 1:18-32 has Apostle Paul commenting on this

Leviticus would be under the Old Law
but Paul is under the New Law

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.
32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

[humblegunner]

Recommended Reading:

I note that your "recommended reading" links point to your blog.

You are either the world's foremost authority.. or a pimp seeking hits.

Pick one.

[Mercat]

Did he say “gay” or “people with same sex attraction”.

[Sam Gamgee]

So the Pope is all right with gay priests. Seems like he has sold out on his beliefs.