Pope Francis made headlines while in Brazil yesterday, when he told followers that LGBT Catholics should not be "marginalized", and asked "who am I to judge?" Many found the Pope's comments to be groundbreaking, and possibly indicative of a massive "sea change" in the Catholic Church's views on homosexuality. Of course, Cardinal Timothy Dolan doesn't want you to get too excited.
The New York cardinal and archbishop has a history of making anti-gay remarks. Thus, his most recent comments, which came during an interview on CBS This Morning this morning, seem almost predictable. When asked about the Pope's recent message of tolerance, Dolan insisted that Francis' comments represent lessons that the church has been teaching for years. Is that message to treat LGBT people with tolerance? Not exactly.
“Homosexuality is not a sin, right? Homosexual acts are. Just like heterosexuality is not a sin outside of marriage, that would be sinful…While certain acts may be wrong, [Pope Francis] would always love and respect the person and treat the person with dignity and not judge them."
In other words, according to Dolan, The Pope's message is simply a re-hashing of the commonly-uttered "love the sinner, hate the sin" proverb commonly used by homophobes to insist that they are not, in fact, homophobic. Of course, this is simply Dolan's interpretation, since the Pope has yet to issue any additional comments as of late. Then again, should Dolan's interpretation prove accurate, then it wouldn't hurt the cardinal to heed the Pope's (and his own, apparently) advice. As ThinkProgress pointed out…
"The Cardinal hasn’t always followed his own advice and has repeatedly condemned the rights of same-sex couples under the guise of love and support for the gay community. After lobbying against New York’s marriage equality law, Dolan prohibited by decree any Church personnel or property from being utilized for same-sex marriage ceremonies under penalty of "canonical sanctions," calling the state’s law "irreconcilable with the nature and the definition of marriage as established by Divine law." He has also compared the "threat" posed to marriage by gays and lesbians to that of polygamy, adultery, forced marriage, communist dictatorships, and incest. Dolan responded to the Supreme Court’s decision striking down a section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act by claiming that the spread of marriage equality will threaten 'the common good of all.'"
That all certainly sounds like judgement to us…
Watch Dolan on CBS This Morning AFTER THE JUMP…
