Pope Francis wrote a letter of support to a pro-LGBT Catholic group.
The letter was sent through a nun with a record of heterodox advocacy.
The Australian Acceptance group is a “fully inclusive and affirming group comprising of LGBTIQA+ Catholics, their families, and their friends.”
According to the group’s website, “LGBTIQA+ people of faith can be their true selves and live out their faith with full flourishing of their humanity.”
The group honors “embracing the truth about ourselves, and celebrating God’s love – we seek to point towards the full inclusivity to which God is calling us.”
Acceptance wrote back to the Pope, thanking him for “his warm and encouraging message and the support it provides to continue its mission of providing a welcoming ministry of LGBTQ+ Catholics, affirming their dignity and Catholic faith.”
Angela Han of the Perth Acceptance group said the Pope’s letter “reflects a message of welcome, inclusivity, compassion and acceptance, affirming the important role Acceptance has played in supporting LGBTQ+ people of faith over the past five decades.”
Reporting from LifeSite News:
Acceptance boasts of being one of the oldest pro-LGBT Catholic groups in existence, and documents its history noting that the group has had a consistent practice of offering weekly LGBT Masses since 1972. In their early days in the 1970s, priests offering Masses for the group “preached a Gospel message that welcomed gays and lesbians as loved people of God,” the group recounts. As of 1990, the group was able to use Catholic churches to hold their Masses, courtesy of a local Jesuit parish priest. … In fact, the group notes how “it is not surprising that many LGBTIQA+ Catholics who follow church teaching in general, find the church’s teaching on sex and sexuality both outdated and unhelpful, even damaging to their life and loves.”
