<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n After a draft Vatican document calling for greater openness towards homosexuals was voted down by the Catholic synod on Saturday, several cardinals expressed relief that Pope Francis\u2019s affirmation of gay Catholics was \u201cjust a phase.”<\/p>\n Cardinal Roger Etchegaray of France, appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1979, stated that Francis\u2019s earlier consideration of LGBT issues was something every pontiff experiences during his first years in the Papacy: \u201cThe novelty of the office can be overwhelming, and that tends to produce a culture of ideological exploration and experimentation. However,\u201d continued Etchegaray, \u201cafter those freewheeling urges die down, most Popes rediscover the pontiff they truly were all along.\u201d<\/p>\n Other cardinals posit that the Pope\u2019s liberalism was an attempt to \u201cget back\u201d at his predecessor, Benedict XVI. \u201cIt\u2019s understandable that Francis would wish to distinguish himself by reconsidering doctrinal opposition to gays and lesbians \u2013 classic youthful rebellion,\u201d said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals. <\/p>\n Sodano recalled a \u201cparticularly awkward\u201d Easter when the pontiff brought the LGBT Catholic group Equally Blessed to speak at the Vatican. \u201cYikes, was that <\/em>dinner uncomfortable,\u201d Sodano told the Dealer<\/em>. \u201cHopefully in a couple years, when those memories are safely in the past, I\u2019ll be able to sit down with the Pope and have a good laugh about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Si Squires-Kasten Oct. 23, 2014 After a draft Vatican document calling for greater openness towards homosexuals was voted down by the Catholic synod on Saturday, several cardinals expressed relief that Pope Francis\u2019s affirmation of gay Catholics was \u201cjust a phase.” Cardinal Roger Etchegaray of France, appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1979, stated that Francis\u2019s earlier consideration of LGBT issues was something every pontiff experiences during his first years in the Papacy: \u201cThe novelty of the office can be overwhelming, and that tends to produce a culture of ideological exploration and experimentation. However,\u201d continued Etchegaray, \u201cafter those freewheeling urges die down, most Popes rediscover the pontiff they truly were all along.\u201d Other cardinals posit that the Pope\u2019s liberalism was an attempt to \u201cget back\u201d at his predecessor, Benedict XVI. \u201cIt\u2019s understandable that Francis would wish to distinguish himself by reconsidering doctrinal opposition to gays and lesbians \u2013 classic youthful rebellion,\u201d said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals. Sodano recalled a \u201cparticularly awkward\u201d Easter when the pontiff brought the LGBT Catholic group Equally Blessed to speak at the Vatican. \u201cYikes, was that dinner uncomfortable,\u201d Sodano told the Dealer. \u201cHopefully in a couple years, when those memories are safely in the past, I\u2019ll be able to sit down with the Pope and have a good laugh about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-komono"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3178,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions\/3178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}