Much has been made about the fact that ‘cool’ Pope Francis seems to be the most progressive Pope the Catholic church has ever seen, thanks to his sympathetic views on homosexuality, contraception and abortion. He’s even said that atheists could be granted into heaven, which slightly misses the point about what an atheist actually is but is nonetheless a nice gesture.
**Up to this point, the jury's been out for us - after all he did call abortion ‘frightful’, which we’re obviously not ok with. But this week he's doing best to win us liberal lefties back round, but suggesting that the Catholic church might 'stop condemning' same-sex civil partnerships.
According to one of the Catholic Church’s most senior cardinals, Pope Francis has suggested that the Vatican could support gay civil rights in the future. Cardinal Timothy Dolan said that the Pope wants the Catholic Church to study same-sex relationships, ‘rather than condemn them’.
Cardinal Dolan told American television network NBC that Francis wants the church to 'look into it and see the reasons that have driven them.’ But don’t crack open the champers quite yet, because Dolan added: ‘It wasn't as if he came out and approved them. He said, “Rather than quickly condemn them, let's just ask the questions as to why that has appealed to certain people.”'
When Pope Francis gave an interview to mark a year since his Papal inauguration, Pope Francis reaffirmed that the Vatican was opposed to gay marriage, but hinted that some types of civil union could soon be accepted by the Catholic Church, saying'marriage is between a man and a woman,' but added that ‘we have to look at different cases and evaluate them in their variety.'
Ok, so as grand gestures go, it's not all that grand - the Catholic Church is still moving painfully slowly when it comes to to gay rights. But nevertheless, this is still a huge concession from the Vatican and make Pope Francis that bit cooler in our eyes.
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Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.