Volume #3 Issue #8/ August, 2013 from telegraph.co.uk POPE FRANCIS REACHES OUT TO GAYS Pope Francis appears to have softened the Catholic Church’s attitude towards homosexuality and gay priests, in a remarkably candid interview given to journalists aboard the papal plane as he returned to Rome from his week-long trip to Brazil. by Nick Squires, Rio de Janeiro In the first press conference of his four month papacy, the 76-year-old pontiff said it was not for him to judge if someone was homosexual. “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis asked, as he returned from the first overseas trip since being elected Pope in March. He said there should be no discrimination against gays, but also reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s universal catechism, which says that while homosexual orientation is not sinful, homosexual acts are. He was much more conciliatory than his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Cont’d on page 2 Page 2 POPE FRANCES Cont’d from page 1 The Pope was asked about long-standing claims that there is a powerful “gay lobby” within the Vatican. In June, he himself acknowledged that such a lobby existed in the Curia, the Vatican’s secretive administration. On the plane, he said the gay lobby was a problem — not so much because the people involved were homosexual, but because of the machinations that they got up to within the Vatican. “The problem is not having this orientation. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worst problem,” he said. He was quizzed specifically on claims that one of his trusted confidantes, a priest appointed to oversee the reform of the scandal- ridden Vatican bank, had had a series of homosexual trysts while serving as a Vatican diplomat in Uruguay and Switzerland a decade ago. The 57-year-old monsignor, who had a 15-year career as a Vatican diplomat, allegedly shocked fellow priests and nuns at the Holy See’s embassy in Montevideo by having a homosexual affair with a captain in the Swiss army, whom he had met during an earlier posting to Berne. The Pope said he had investigated the allegations but had found nothing to back them up. He had ordered a “brief investigation but we found nothing on him,” he said during a wide-ranging question and answer session lasting nearly an hour and a half. “I have not seen anyone at the Vatican who is registered as gay on his identity card. We acknowledge that there are (gays),” he said. There have long been claims that many clergy within the Vatican are gay. In 2011 an Italian investigative journalist, Carmelo Abbate, spent months undercover documenting a “hidden world” in which gay priests of many different nationalities visit nightclubs in Rome and pay for sex with male escorts. Abbate said there was “a culture of 'omerta’ (silence)” about the issue in his book, “Sex and the Vatican: a secret journey in the reign of the chaste.” The book developed from an investigation conducted by Abbate in which he used hidden cameras to film three priests attending gay nightspots in Rome and having casual sex, before donning their cassocks the next day and holding church services. On corruption in the Holy See, the Pope referred specifically to Msgr Nunzio Scarano, a Vatican priest who has been jailed in Rome on suspicion of plotting to smuggle 20 million euros on board a private plane from Switzerland into Italy. “There are many people (in the Vatican) who are saints but there are those who are not very saintly ... and it pains me when this happens. There is this monsignor in jail. He didn’t go to jail because he resembled a saint ... these are scandals that do damage,” he said. Msgr Scarano is alleged to have been laundering money through at least two accounts at the Vatican bank, which Francis has vowed to reform and make more transparent. The Argentinian Pope said the bank, known as the Institute Msgr Nunzio Scarano for the Works of Religion, must become “honest and transparent”. Cont’d on page 3 Page 3 POPE FRANCES Cont’d from page 2 On other key issues, the Pope said that women should be given a bigger role in the Catholic Church but refused to consider their ordination, saying the “door is closed” on the issue. He also declined to change the Vatican’s opposition to gay marriage and abortion, saying “you know perfectly the position of the Church”. He also showed his lighter side, making a joke when asked what he carried in a black leather bag that he carried up the steps of the Alitalia flight when he departed Rome for Rio de Janeiro last week. “The key to the atom bomb is not inside it!” he said. Instead it contained a diary, a book to read and a razor. He said he found it extraordinary that the photo of him carrying his own hand luggage had made news around the world. “I always travel with this travel bag, it’s normal.” Asked what it was like to have another pontiff, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, living within the walls of the Vatican, a few minutes’ walk from his residence, he said it was “like having a grandfather – a wise grandfather – living at home”. “The last time there were two or three Popes, they didn’t talk among themselves and they fought over who was the true Pope!” he said, referring to historic schisms between popes and challengers. Although he appeared physically robust and remarkably energetic on the week-long trip to Brazil, he said he had hurt his sciatic nerve after using a bad chair in the first month after his election.”It was so painful. So painful! I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.” He said his week-long trip to Brazil left him very tired but “did me a lot of spiritual good”. He said he did not want to be surrounded by 'yes’ men and preferred his aides to challenge him. “I like it when someone tells me ’I don’t agree’. This is a true collaborator. When they say ’Oh, how great, how great, how great,’ that’s not useful.” from towleroad.com PAT ROBERTSON ADMITS BEING TRANS IS TRUE AND NOT A SIN Towleroad readers know that Pat Robertson isn't exactly known for his tolerance or open-mindedness. On the contrary, he has an extensive history of making ignorant and homophobic remarks. However, in a recent "Bring It On-Line" Q&A segment on his show, Robertson made an admission that many may find shocking. The question came from a viewer named "David", who asked: "I work with two people who have decided that they are females. I know what the bible says about homosexuality, but is it wrong to refer to them as females since they have had their gender status changed in the eyes of the law?" Cont’d on page 4 Page 4 PAT ROBERTSON Cont’d from page 3 Robertson's reply, in short: no. While he did call the process of transitioning "drastic" and "radical", and said that he would "question the validity" of anyone who would come out to him as trans, Robertson did admit that "there are men who are in a woman's body. It's very rare, but it's true...or a women that are in men's bodies." Such an admission from the likes of Pat Robertson would already be considered a victory. However, he also added that "I don't think there's any sin associated with that. I don't condemn somebody for doing that," before concluding that "it's not for you to decide or to judge." Imagine that, a televangelist televising a message of (relative) tolerance. From latinpost.com and dailymail.co.uk CARLOS VIGIL SUICIDE: TEEN TAKES OWN LIFE AFTER BULLYING, TWEETS 'I AM A LOSER, A FREAK, AND A FAG' by Stefan Lopez and Jim Reilly Tragedy has struck Los Lunas High School in New Mexico as bullying resulted in one 17-year-old's suicide. The messages he left before his death have given those who knew Carlos Vigil insight into just how much pain he was in before he decided to take his own life. "I'm sorry to those I offended over the years. I'm blind to see that I, as a human being, suck. I'm an individual who is doing an injustice to the world and it's time for me to leave," read a post on Vigil's Twitter account, continuing: "The kids in school are right, I am a loser, a freak, and a fag and in no way is that acceptable for people to deal with. I'm sorry for not being a person that would make people proud." Dozens of classmates showed up at the hospital where Carlos was on life support. They said that he had just returned from a trip out of state to North Carolina where he had spoken out against school bullying. His father said he had just returned from North Carolina where he was lobbying an anti-bullying bill in their state legislature. Apparently, the reception he got on his trip was far from hospitable, and mere hours after he returned, Vigil killed himself via a still- undisclosed method.