Mary E. Hunt Responds to Pope Francis

Mary E. Hunt and other faith leaders respond to Pope Francis’ comments on LGBT people.

The full article can be read on National Religious Leadership Roundtable of the NGLTF

“Reflections by Pope Francis on reordering Catholic moral and theological priorities are welcome. Decades of focus by institutional church officials on what Catholic theologian Daniel C. Maguire baptized ‘the pelvic zone issues’ have rendered the Roman Catholic Church outdated and unhelpful when it comes to dealing with today’s moral dilemmas: war, ecological crisis, poverty, racism, healthcare, and the wellbeing of women and dependent children. Progressive Catholics, especially women, have been working on these issues for a long time. It is good to see some members of the hierarchy begin to join the struggle.

“What needs to happen next is for Francis’ words about the church as ‘the holy, faithful people of God’ to become the basis of new ecclesial structures, new forms of shared ministry, leadership, and authority. Then, rather than applauding a pope for saying obvious and necessary things that bring Catholicism into the twentieth, if not twenty-first century, the world can take seriously the voices of all Catholics who engage in the sacred work of doing justice.”