GOD DOES NOT DISOWN HIS CHILDREN

Recently the Pope answered three questions posed from a letter by Jesuit Fr James Martin, a driving force behind the new website, outreach.faith. Fr Martin asked the Pope, “What do you say to an LGBT Catholic who has experienced rejection from the Church?” “I would have them recognise it not as the ‘rejection of the Church,’ but instead ‘of people in the church,'” the Pope responded. “The Church is mother and calls together all of her children,” he continued. “Take for example the parable of those invited to the feast: ‘the just, the sinners, the rich and the poor, etc.'” A church that is “selective,” or makes some pretext about who is “pure,” he said, “is not the Holy Mother Church, but rather a sect”. Asked what the most important thing LGBT people should know about God, Pope Francis responded, “God is Father and he does not disown any of his children. And ‘the style’ of God is ‘closeness, mercy and tenderness.’ Along this path you will find God.” Fr Martin also asked Francis what he would like LGBT people to know about the Church, to which the Pope responded that they should read the Acts of the Apostles. “There they will find the image of the living Church.”