Gay rights advocates have responded to
the election of Pope Francis, the first non-European pope in the
Roman Catholic Church's history.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now known as
Pope Francis, strongly opposed allowing gay and lesbian couples the
right to marry and adopt children in his home country of Argentina.
(Related: New
Pope Jorge Bergoglio once called gay marriage devil's handiwork.)
“We congratulate Pope Francis in his
new position as leader for the Roman Catholic Church,” Dr. Sharon
Groves, director of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Religion and
Faith Program, said
in a statement. “As Pope, he has enormous power to be a source
of spiritual healing for millions around the world. But for him to
be the best kind of spiritual leader, he must acknowledge the signs
of the times and embrace LGBT people as worthy of dignity and
respect. American lay Catholics are fully supportive of equality,
even more so than the broader population. The new Pope should follow
the virtuous lead of his flock.”
(Related: Majority
of Catholics support gay marriage.)
“We hope the new Pope understands the
time for religious-based bigotry is not only over, but must be
denounced. Demonizing LGBT people and their families from this
powerful platform not only fails to keep faith with the most
charitable principles of Catholic teachings and the Jesuit tradition
of caring for the marginalized, but it does real psychological damage
to millions of LGBT people around the world.”
GLAAD President Herndon Graddick had
harsher words for Pope Francis.
“The National Catholic reporter said
Pope Francis called adoption by gay and lesbian people a form of
discrimination against children,” Graddick said in a statement.
“The real discrimination against children is the pedophilia that
has run rampant in the Catholic Church with little more than
collusion from the Vatican.”