The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, on Monday reacted to comments
by Pope Francis that gays and other marginalized groups deserve an
apology from the Roman Catholic Church.
Francis was asked Sunday whether he
agrees with the German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who said after the
Orlando shooting that the Church owes an apology to the LGBT
community.
“I believe that the Church not only
should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended,”
Francis told reporters, “but has to apologize to the poor, the
exploited women, to children exploited for labor; it has to ask
forgiveness for having blessed many weapons.”
HRC applauded the pope's comments.
“Pope Francis’ words are a welcome
step toward bringing LGBTQ Catholics closer into the Church and
healing the wounds of those who have felt pushed away from their
Church and its teachings,” said Mary Beth Maxwell, HRC’s Senior
Vice President for Programs, Research, and Training. “Pope Francis’
message of inclusion and love for all people continues to bring
Catholic leadership more in line with the large majority of American
Catholics who believe in full equality for their LGBTQ
family-members, friends, neighbors, and fellow parishioners. The vast
majority of American Catholics say no to hatred and no to
discrimination.”
Pope Francis continued to say that he
believes Christians in general should apologize.
“The Church must say it is sorry for
not having behaved as it should many times, many times – when I say
'the Church,' I mean we Christians, because the Church is holy; we
are the sinners. We Christians must say we are sorry,” he
said.