Pope Francis affirms homosexuality is a ‘sin’ but says it shouldn’t be criminalized
Jeremiah Poff
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Pope Francis affirmed the historic Catholic teaching that homosexuality is a sin in a recent interview while also expressing opposition to laws that criminalize such behaviors.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church made the comments in an interview with the Associated Press Tuesday that touched on a wide range of topics, including gun use, his health, and an agreement between the Holy See and the Chinese government for selecting new bishops.
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“Being homosexual is not a crime,” the pope said. “Yes, it is a sin, but we must distinguish between a crime and a sin.”
The pope has had a history of making statements sympathetic to the gay community, including in 2013, shortly after his election as pope, when he told reporters, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
In the interview, Francis said that laws prohibiting homosexuality are “unjust” and said that gay people should be treated with dignity and respect, as delineated in the catechism of the Catholic Church, the compendium of Catholic teaching.
“We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity,” he said.
The catechism says that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and are “contrary to the natural law” because they separate sexual activity from “the gift of life” and “do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity.” But people who have “deep-seated homosexual tendencies … must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.”
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Dozens of countries, primarily in Africa and Asia, criminalize homosexuality. Francis noted that while some Catholic bishops support such laws, “these bishops have to have a process of conversion.”