Pope Francis Demotes Arch Bishop Who Explained Too Much


Pope Francis demoted an Archbishop who said the reason the church does not bless gay marriage is because it cannot bless sin. The Bishop will retain the title Archbishop but will no longer hold a high administrative post. He was relegated to a smaller diocese.

What could be wrong with saying "can't bless a sin?" It is a violation of the Catholic Church's method of dealing with unresolvable dilemmas. Let's go back to Galileo. About 20 years ago, a committee in the church was assigned the task of solving what it referred to as "The Galileo Problem." The problem, of course, was that a pope had declared the sun revolved around the earth, not the earth revolving around the sun. We all know Galileo made telescopes and figured out the earth circled the sun. Galileo was put under house arrest for life.

Since any pope hears directly from God, how could the church decide God was wrong and thus the pope was wrong? After ten years in the committee, a decision was made to declare the pope was not wrong. Instead, the written conclusion says simply mistakes were made. There were "errors by theologians at the time." The Pope, and the Catholic Church, was not wrong.

That, then, is the way to handle many dilemmas where the Catholic Church is wrong but cannot admit it was wrong. It is to not talk about it again. The "cannot bless a sin" archbishop violated this unwritten rule by explaining the reason for withholding blessing from gay couples. The proper answer was "the church has a tradition of not blessing gay marriages." Going further to explain why got him fired.

 Apparently, the Pope first approved the "cannot bless a sin" explanation. He heard so much outrage from gay and liberal Catholics he realized this was a mistake. Better to change the subject than to condemn a group over and over again. After the Pope's mistake, someone had to take one for the team. It was the archbishop.

Gay and liberal Catholics, along with perhaps the majority of people in the Western world, do not believe being gay can possibly be a sin. Being born without legs is not a sin. Being born attracted to the same sex cannot be either. 

We can bet all Catholic clergy realize they are on a short leash when talking about the gay issue.

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