{"id":12383,"date":"2013-07-30T02:27:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-30T06:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/?p=12383"},"modified":"2025-10-16T20:55:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T03:55:48","slug":"on-homosexual-priests-pope-francis-asks-who-am-i-to-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/on-homosexual-priests-pope-francis-asks-who-am-i-to-judge\/","title":{"rendered":"On Homosexual Priests, Pope Francis Asks, \u2018Who Am I to Judge?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Rachel Donadio<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><em>New York Times<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>ROME \u2014 For generations, homosexuality has largely been a taboo topic for the Vatican, ignored altogether or treated as \u201can intrinsic moral evil,\u201d in the words of the previous pope.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">In that context, brief remarks by Pope Francis suggesting that he would not judge priests for their sexual orientation, made aboard the papal airplane on the way back from his first foreign trip, to Brazil, resonated through the church. Never veering from church doctrine opposing homosexuality, Francis did strike a more compassionate tone than that of his predecessors, some of whom had largely avoided even saying the more colloquial \u201cgay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">\u201cIf someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?\u201d Francis told reporters, speaking in Italian but using the English word \u201cgay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Francis\u2019s words could not have been more different from those of Benedict XVI, who in 2005 wrote that homosexuality was \u201ca strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil,\u201d and an \u201cobjective disorder.\u201d The church document said men with \u201cdeep-seated homosexual tendencies\u201d should not become priests. Click here to continue reading.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rachel Donadio New York&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,89],"tags":[2926,629,1714,2919,2932],"class_list":["post-12383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homosexuality","category-road-to-rome","tag-road-to-rome","tag-catholic-church","tag-pope-francis","tag-signs-of-the-times","tag-homosexuality","wpcat-113-id","wpcat-89-id"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>On Homosexual Priests, Pope Francis Asks, \u2018Who Am I to Judge?\u2019 - From the Lighthouse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/on-homosexual-priests-pope-francis-asks-who-am-i-to-judge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Homosexual Priests, Pope Francis Asks, \u2018Who Am I to Judge?\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Rachel Donadio New York...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/on-homosexual-priests-pope-francis-asks-who-am-i-to-judge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"From the Lighthouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LighthouseTrailsResearch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-30T06:27:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-17T03:55:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Miscellaneous News Source\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Miscellaneous News Source\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/on-homosexual-priests-pope-francis-asks-who-am-i-to-judge\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/on-homosexual-priests-pope-francis-asks-who-am-i-to-judge\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Miscellaneous News Source\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9fdbcbd48da5f29bb452804f6cac87fd\"},\"headline\":\"On Homosexual Priests, Pope Francis Asks, \u2018Who Am I to Judge?\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-30T06:27:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-17T03:55:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/on-homosexual-priests-pope-francis-asks-who-am-i-to-judge\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":199,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"Road to Rome\",\"catholic church\",\"pope francis\",\"Signs of the Times\",\"Homosexuality\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Homosexuality\",\"ROAD TO ROME\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/on-homosexual-priests-pope-francis-asks-who-am-i-to-judge\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/on-homosexual-priests-pope-francis-asks-who-am-i-to-judge\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/on-homosexual-priests-pope-francis-asks-who-am-i-to-judge\\\/\",\"name\":\"On Homosexual Priests, Pope Francis Asks, \u2018Who Am I to Judge?\u2019 - 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