CATHOLIC WOW: THE CHRISTMAS SURPRISE
Pope Francis tells Santa Claus, Hold My Beer
So I was busily getting a piece on the finale of the Crown together for you this morning when this happened.
I’m not sure there’s any way to overstate the importance of this announcement for Catholics. The head of the Catholic Church just said that queer relationships, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church and an awful lot of Catholic bishops describe as sinful, are worthy of blessing.
The Vatican is very clear to state that the Church is not about to start having gay weddings, that the teaching of the Church is still what it was about marriage. But I wonder how much that distinction will mean to people. The fact is, if I’m Catholic and gay my partner and I can have a ceremony in a church in which our relationship is publicly acknowledged and blessed by a priest or deacon. Sure, we will have said our vows somewhere else, but still, to me it seems like this is an awful lot of what queer people want.
I had an article in U.S. Catholic last week about resources for queer Catholics in Advent and Christmas. And the surprise of it for me in the writing was realizing some of the unease that comes with going to Mass as a queer Catholic. How much can you acknowledge who you are? Can you kiss your partner? Can you hold hands? Can you dress as you feel comfortable, regardless of what others might think? It’s not something you might think about if you’re straight (or a Jesuit for 31 years). But it’s a really significant issue.
Francis’ announcement today won’t change that all at once, or probably at all in some places. But it is a huge step.
I’m about to hop on a plane. I’ll have much more to say in the next 24 hours. For now, all I can say is, I look forward to seeing a lot of this in the weeks and months to come:
