Wait a minute...the “pope” had lunch with homos. She should have known better than to point to something like a biblical position when Rome is slowly morphing into a cross between Starbucks and the Elks Lodge.
Just for clarity’s sake, the teaching of the Church regarding homosexuality can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as follows:
2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,140 tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.”141 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.
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
There’s nothing wrong with lunching with people who suffer from same-sex attraction. Throwing the book at them and telling them to swim or sink is not the right way to reach out to them. Remember that Jesus was accused of having too much to do with prostitutes and publicans. Jesus made house calls, as Pope Francis does. Sometimes the physician must go to the sick to heal them.
+JMJ,
~Theo
Having lunch with sinners-— what a Jesus-y thing to do.