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Pope Francis Tells Parents To ‘Not Condemn’ Their Gay Kids

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Nicole Silverio Media Reporter
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Pope Francis said Wednesday that parents should “not condemn” a child due to their sexual orientation.

Francis made the unscripted comments to his weekly Wednesday audience dedicated to St. Joseph, the father of Jesus. He spoke to parents who are coping with a variety of difficult situations in their children’s lives, advising those with gay children to refrain from having a “condemning attitude.”

“I am thinking of parents in the face of their children’s problems: Children with many illnesses, children who are sick. Children who are sick, how much pain is there! Parents who see that their children have different sexual orientations, how they manage that and how they accompany their children and not hide behind a condemning attitude,” Francis said.

“Yes, there is pain. A lot. But think of the Lord, think about how Joseph solved the problems and ask Joseph to help you,” Francis advised. “Never condemn a child.” (RELATED: Vatican: Catholic Church Cannot Bless Gay Unions Because God ‘Cannot Bless Sin’) 

Francis appeared to support civil unions for same-sex couples in the October 2020, documentary “Francesco,” created by the gay, Russian-born director Evgeny Afineevsky. The statements came from a 2019 interview with Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki, where he reportedly said that “we have to create a civil union law” for homosexual couples.

“Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family,” Francis said. “Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it … What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. I stood up for that.”

The Catholic News Agency, however, reported that some of Francis’ quotes were “heavily edited” for the documentary. In his 2016 encyclical Amoris Laetitia, Francis wrote “there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.”

In 2019, Francis welcomed Fr. James Martin to the Apostolic Palace to discuss the struggles and grievances of the LGBTQ community, including Catholics. In 2013, the pope said he would not “judge” gay priests and clergymen “if he searches for the Lord and has goodwill,” USA Today reported.

Church teaching declares homosexual acts as “intrinsically immoral and contrary to natural law” and calls its tendencies “objectively disordered.”