And once again the Catholic Church affirms its attachment to prejudice and discrimination. The institutional church keeps sending signals to people in the pews that even the light of Pope Francis cannot dispel the darkness of bad theology and a regressive patriarchal leadership that continues to subvert the welcome that Jesus extended to all even in the face of the cultural taboos of His time. Until the church disavows the odious Doctrine of Discovery that continues to make possible the oppression and exploitation of native peoples, and until it recognizes women and LGBT people as human beings endowed with all the gifts of the Creator, it cannot claim to be true followers of Jesus. Imagine Jesus signing a document to exclude anyone . . .This is the stuff of a bureaucracy in love with itself. If God is Love, this announcement by the church is not an uplifting example of a community radiating the Divine by the warmth of its welcome to all. How long before the Church shows that it truly means it when it says
The following is a statement of Francis DeBernardo, Executive Director, New Ways Ministry, in response to the news that Pope Francis has approved a document entitled “The Gift of the Priestly Vocation” from the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, which reaffirms Pope Benedict XVI’s 2005 ban on gay men from entering the Catholic priesthood.
Pope Francis has a lot of explaining to do by approving the newest Vatican instruction that reaffirms a 2005 ban on gay men becoming priests. Pope Francis’ famous “Who am I to judge?” statement in 2013 was made in response to a question about gay men in the priesthood, and that response indicated very plainly that he did not have a problem with a gay priest’s sexual orientation, as long as “he searches for the Lord and has good will.”
The newest document, entitled “The Gift of the Priestly Vocation,” contains three sections about gay…
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Dawn Morais 
Thanks for shining a light on this recent outrage.