What we can learn from Vatican’s evolving stand on homosexuality

Early this year, Pope Francis had reportedly said that gay marriages should be studied and shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand; earlier in the year, he had asked, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” A couple of days ago, there was better news still from Vatican. A Vatican synod, in which about 200 bishops have been participating since 5 October, has said that “homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community”. A preliminary report written by these bishops, midway through the synod, asked ““are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a fraternal space in our communities?” Although it’s still not a truly pathbreaking position in terms of the Vatican’s stated stand on gay and lesbian relationships and same sex marriage, the LGBT community thought about it as a breakthrough while the conservatives slammed it as betrayal. Equal rights groups thought they got something remarkable as they wait for more, particularly with an even more remarkable Pope Francis presiding over things. [caption id=“attachment_1760745” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Pope Francis. Reuters.[/caption] Since he took over, Pope Francis has pushed the envelope on gay relationship considerably. Compared to his predecessor Pope Benedict who called homosexual relationships as “intrinsically disordered”, he always took a totally rights-sensitive stand. Last year, he asked journalists: “if a person seeks god and has the goodwill, then who am to judge.” “We shouldn’t marginalise people for this. They must be integrated into society,” he further said. The BBC reported that Pope Francis’s approach of focussing on the positives than the negatives has found many takers among the bishops attending the synod. Perhaps, it’s his influence that resulted in the document that appeared to acknowledge and accommodate same sex relationships. It may be recalled that the report comes not too late after a survey by Pope Francis last year, which reportedly suggested that majority of Catholics rejected education on sex and contraception by the Church. It was not the latest position by the synod that has won the Pope plaudits.Many consider him as a rockstar because of his progressive views - he is the first ever Pope to have used the more appropriate word “gay”, instead of the possibly discriminatory term “homesexual”. As a Telegraph story reported, in an interview last week with Corriere della Sera, a leading Italian daily, the Pope stressed that the Church continued to regard marriage as being a union between a man and a woman. However, he did say that countries around the world were “normalising different arrangements of cohabitation” and that “we must consider different cases and evaluate each particular case.” Although the Vatican tried to play down his remarks by saying that his words were general and more reading should not be read into it, for an institution that had been severely conservative for decades - that in 1986 called gay people deranged - his words were dramatically reassuring. The reactions from the Catholic world have also been equally reassuring. For instance, the Catholic Church in New Zealand welcomed the synod’s note. According to this Radio New Zealand report, Father John O’Connor from the Catholic diocese of Christchurch said the church’s role was to deepen people’s relationship with Christ and the change of tone was a positive step towards that.“One of the key points of this synod has been the change of language, changes in the way that we speak about the heart of what we believe. He also went on to add that he knew that many Catholics were also delighted. It’s certainly too early to celebrate, but the evolving language and attitude of the Vatican on gay relationships and same-sex marriages have been extremely refreshing when 58 of the 80 countries that have ratified the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) still criminalise homosexuality. Most of the countries criminalise same sex relationships through law while many others do it through the application of Sharia. While it’s completely legal in all European countries, it can invite serious trouble as a criminal offence in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Vatican’s attitude is more reassuring than that of the governments of more than half the world. It’s an established fact that criminalisation pushes sexual behaviour underground which put people at enormous risk to violence and health hazards such as HIV. Some studies show that in many urban centres in countries where homosexuality criminalised, a third of gay and transgender people are infected with HIV, mainly because of the lack of equal access to services. For the time being, Pope Francis is a beacon of hope and one can hope that his words and action can provide the catalyst for change that the world has been looking for.