{"id":26805,"date":"2013-10-10T10:21:53","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T14:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=26805"},"modified":"2016-09-30T16:01:54","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T20:01:54","slug":"pope-writes-letter-to-gay-catholics-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/10\/pope-writes-letter-to-gay-catholics-in-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope writes letter to gay Catholics in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

America has the details:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pope Francis turned to pen and paper to respond to a letter from a group of gay and lesbian Italian Catholics sent in June, according to the Italian daily\u00a0La Repubblica<\/a>(Note: this account in English relies on a\u00a0Google translation<\/a>; it may be imperfect). The group had written to Pope Francis in a personal appeal to\u00a0to be recognized as people and not as a \u201ccategory.\u201d A leader of the impromptu committee said as gay Catholics they had in the past written to other members of the church leadership in Italy and had always before been rewarded with silence.<\/p>\n

In their letter, a group of gay and lesbian Catholics organized into the group, Kairos of Florence, asked\u00a0for openness and dialogue, noting that closure to discussion \u201calways feeds homophobia.\u201d\u00a0The members were shocked to receive a personal response to their appeal from Pope Francis. One leader of the group told La Repubblica \u201cno one had ever even given a nod of response\u201d before. The Kairos group said they also received a letter from\u00a0the Vatican Secretariat of State, which informed them that Pope Francis \u201creally enjoyed\u201d their letter to him and the way it was written, calling it an act of \u201cspontaneous confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Kairos leader said Pope Francis had also assured the group of his blessing, something they could not before have imagined happening. The members of Kairos have decided to keep the rest of the message of both letters private.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

As The Anchoress<\/a><\/strong> noted yesterday:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re supposed to pursue, together. Not beating each other up because some are more \u201cadvanced\u201d while others are lagging behind, some are more immediate in their obedience while others seem to be taking a circuitous route. We\u2019re supposed to be\u00a0in this together<\/a>:\u00a0One man helps another, one says to the other, \u201cKeep on!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Isaiah 40:6[5]<\/a>).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, when a group of gay Catholics wrote to Pope Francis,\u00a0he wrote back<\/a>\u00a0assuring them of his \u201cgreeting and blessing.\u201d Because first you show the human being before you that you see their God-loved-into-being humanity, and the evangelization flows from there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America has the details:\u00a0 Pope Francis turned to pen and paper to respond to a letter from a group of gay and lesbian Italian Catholics sent in June, according to the Italian daily\u00a0La Repubblica(Note: this account in English relies on a\u00a0Google translation; it may be imperfect). The group had written to Pope Francis in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[378,39],"tags":[1112,1413],"class_list":["post-26805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gay-rights","category-pope","tag-gays","tag-pope-francis"],"yoast_head":"\nPope writes letter to gay Catholics in Italy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"America has the details:\u00a0 Pope Francis turned to pen and paper to respond to a letter from a group of gay and lesbian Italian Catholics sent in June,\" \/>\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.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/10\/pope-writes-letter-to-gay-catholics-in-italy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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