The Advocate has named Pope Francis its Person of the Year. Apparently, there was such a shortage of actual LGBT newsmakers this year that the magazine had to turn to the heterosexual community to find someone to honor.
Edie Windsor, the widow whose case won us the Supreme Court victory for marriage? Evan Wolfson, the lawyer who has devoted 30 years preparing the ground for perhaps the greatest cultural shift in American history? Tom Daley, the athlete who showed us how easy a young man can be with is sexuality? Runners-up, and in Wolfson’s case, not even that.
And what did the pope do to merit this honor? He made a couple of comments.
When Time magazine named the pope its Person of the Year, it spent a lot of time talking about the potential for change that Francis represents. Most notable among those were his “Who am I to judge?” comment about gay people. There were also his remarks about the Church ratcheting back its obsession on gay issues.
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These are the slender reeds upon which The Advocate hangs its honors. The magazine obviously knew it was being deliberately controversial. What it didn’t realize was that it was also celebrating homophobia at slightly reduced levels. Here are five reasons why The Advocate was dangerously wrong to pick the Pope as its Person of the Year.
1. He hasn’t actually done anything. This is the hardest fact to ignore. The pope’s words were lovely and welcome, but even Time acknowledged that the change was in tone, not policy. For institutional homophobia, the Vatican is hard to beat. Until Francis takes steps to eliminate homophobia and not just tone it down, he doesn’t deserve to be an LGBT icon.
2. We don’t know the limits of his rhetoric. Francis has only been in office since the spring. He hasn’t faced a situation when his live-and-let-live rhetoric gets tested. Without a doubt, there will be limits to his rhetoric. At some point, he’s going to draw the line. Given current Church policy, we are guaranteed to be on the wrong side of it.
3. It cheapens the community’s most important legal advance to date. On one side, you have the pope saying kind things. On the other, you have a vast phalanx of lesbians and gays, symbolized by Edie Windsor, who have fought a lifetime to have their relationships validated by the government. Isn’t it ironic that The Advocate choose to honor the man who presides over an institution that will refuses to recognize the importance of our relationships instead of the people who won this battle for us?
4. It confusions omission with action. “True to his word, Pope Francis hasn’t used his biggest moments in the world spotlight to condemn LGBT people, as Benedict had done,” the magazine notes. Really? Passing up the opportunity to verbally bash the community is an almost subterranean bar to clear. If we’re going to start handing out medals on that basis, almost anyone would qualify. Even Republicans.
5, It gives the pope a free pass for future actions. By setting its sights so low, The Advocate has given the journalism equivalent of plenary indulgences to the pope — free passes for future sins. If the pope signs onto campaigns against marriage equality or appoints a notorious homophobe as cardinal, well, he can’t be all bad because he still was honored by The Advocate.
None of this diminishes the potential for change that Pope Francis represents. At a minimum, he’s a breath of fresh air. Over the coming years, he may or may not actually work to move the Church away from its homophobia and change the policies that harm us. Any accomplishments he may make have yet to materialize. Moreover, they may never materialize. We just don’t know.
In the meantime, let’s keep the pope in perspective. The Advocate’s justification is that “regardless of the Catholic Church’s long history of rabid anti-LGBT rhetoric, Pope Francis has adopted a decidedly less hostile tone.” (Note that the tone is “less hostile,” not “friendly.”) We’ve just come out of abusive relationships with the two previous popes. That the new one doesn’t beat us doesn’t make him a saint.
BJ McFrisky
The Pope? Because he threw us a bone? Why not Alec Baldwin, because he has a gay hair stylist? It’s as head-scratching as Barbara Walters naming Hillary Clinton the most fascinating person of 2013, when H.C. has been conspicuously absent all year. Nonsense.
TheNewEnergyDude
Agree with all of your reasons. WTF was the advocate thinking?!?!?!?!?
Heads. Up. Ass. Seriously…WTF???
The only thing I can think of os the cult paid the advocate off as much if not more money than they bribed Time with. Wouldn’t put anything pasts those f&@king satanists.
Jackhoffsky
The first point is VERY important: “He hasn’t actually done anything.”
The most he as done is STOP the avalanche that was started by the previous pope. That itself is a feat, yes… but that is more PR then it is humanitarianism. He’s just standing in place… nothing more.
MK Ultra
Pope Francis, a serial homophobe, fought gay rights every step of the way in his home country of Argentina, using the same vicious rhetoric that hate groups in America do.
The trillion dollar mega muli-national corporation known as the Catholic church, with its millenia long history of human exploitation, torture, slavery, kidnapping, murder, war-mongering, pedophilia, and terrorism, hired Francis to remake their public imagine while strengthening their determination to continue their hellish crusade against humanity.
If it seems like clever, cold, calculated corporate rebranding and PR that’s because that’s exactly what it is.
But the whole world, including most LGBT, applaud this corporate farce, this show, this charade. So maybe Francis does deserve the titles of “Person of the Year” that we all want to shower him with. He certainly wins the award for best performance by a lead actor
renly
This is extremely similar to Barack Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize basically just for winning the presidential election, before he actually did anything in office. Safe to say that one might have been a bit premature too.
hephaestion
I think people are failing to see the forest for the trees. Francis has not advocated our equality, but he has stopped the bombing. This is huge. It’s signaling a sea change and this is as far as the Vatican can go right now. If the Pope advocated full equality for women and gays, as Pope John Paul I did, he would be killed, as Pope John Paul I was in 1978.
TheNewEnergyDude
@hephaestion: Hahahaha. Delusional. It’s all smoke and mirrors.
It will be a wonderful day when the politically and morally corrupt cult die off. An hopefully painfully.
Yeah, they’re all c**ts. Evil, nasty, diseased, smelly ones
MK Ultra
@hephaestion: Why the need to hyperbolize the CC’s insignificant and meaningless PR spin as “huge”?
Why does LGBT need the approval of the world’s largest pedophile ring when Catholics in every country with marriage equality have clearly stated that the church is not where they look to for morality on issues like equality?
You say Francis has stopped the bombing? Where, exactly? By all accounts, Catholic cardinals, bishops, and priests continue to viciously and aggressively attack even the most basic of LGBT rights all over the world.
ouragannyc
I agree 100% with this article. I am shocked and disappointed at this choice. I agree entirely with reason #3.
ouragannyc
@hephaestion: whatever, dude!
AuntieChrist
The Abrahamic religions have done more harm than good to anyone who did not convert and fall in line with their monotheistic beliefs…Intolerance, war and death have been the primary force sugar coated with Christ and brotherly love in Christianity and repression in Judaism and Islam…Unfortunately the human psyche is unable to operate in a moral way without some form of constraint…That is why we have laws and religion… All one has to do is read the comments on Twitter and other social media were the poisonous vitriolic hate speech runs rampant to know the truth behind the base human nature of too many people. It is sad and scary.
middleagespread
Does the Pope have the authority to change Church doctrine? Can he just say that these are the new rules? I’m not Catholic, so I don’t know how it works. If he can change it to be accepting of gay marriage, can the next Pope undo what he did?
dougmc92
Tom Daley doesn’t belong ANYWHERE near that list!!! Come On!!
MikeE
@middleagespread: Yes, the pope can, and yes the next pope can undo it all.
Which sort of makes God out to be a wishy-washy flip-flopper who cannot make up his mind.
You see, supposedly, the Pope (or, as my 4 yr old niece calls him, the Poke) speaks the “word of God”. Any declaration made by the Pope is supposed to be directly the word of God. The pope is “infallible”.
So, the pope says something, the next pop contradicts it, then the next one contradicts that, etc…
And in the end, these guys are either playing a bad game of telephone with God, or God is seriously manic and confused. (or the rather obvious “..or God simply doesn’t exist and these people are delusional”)
dustashed
As a Catholic and as someone who is not from North America, I agree with the Advocate’s choice to select Pope Francis as person of the year.
to the vast majority of non-LGBT people who live outside of North America, the Names “Edie Windsor” or anything else doesn’t even ring a bell, this is not to take away from what she has accomplished for the community but I’m saying that for the rest of the world her name means nothing.
But the Pope on the other hand.. a simple statement like the one he made has sparked a great amount of discussion (I am speaking just from my experience, where I am from) in my country, and I could guess the same thing for other countries as well where Christianity is dominant religion.
just my 2 cents
Kangol
This award, especially from a gay publication, is a bit too much, but he’s starting off decently enough.
In addition to his statements, the pope just demoted the extremely anti-gay Cardinal Raymond Burke, and the pedophile-enabling Cardinal Justin Rigali, both of whom were Archbishops of St. Louis in the past, from the Congregation of the Bishops, one of his top advisory councils.
This is a very good sign. Burke in particular is a vicious homophobe, yet runs around in long red robes and flounced up hats like he’s the Ruby Queen.
MK Ultra
Let gays in foreign countries still struggling with equal rights buy into this shît. If the Catholic church is truly the positive influence they say, then enjoy the ride into equality. If not, sucks for you, I guess. I don’t care. It’s not my rights at stake. But why would gays here give a shît about this garbage?
So much hopelessly blind speculation about what could happen in the future. Maybe in a couple years Russia will become a haven for LGBT rights. We should put blind faith in that too. It’s actually more likely to happen.
striker8083
I wholeheartedly disagree. I’m an ex-catholic and gay and I despise the church especially after the last pope. But Pope Francis, despite that i’m an atheist and think Catholocism is ridiculous, has kind of inspired me. We have not seen this type of tolerance from literally, the person who speaks to God, in forever. The reasons why I found the Catholic Church so outrageous wss their opulence, the sex scandals, their disdain for the power they lost and people moving away from religon in which they didn’t understand. Oh, did I say their hyprocisy. But Pope Francis isn’t buying into the Catholic system…he’s walking with the people, praying for homeless, spending his birthday with homeless people, praying for people with deformities and being everything that is what Jesus talked about. He is telling Catholics not to care about social issues but to care for the poor and struggling. This man is refreshing and he is the embodiment of the “religion” that i grew up believing…and the antithesis of what the Cathloic Church is…and he’s the boss…so queerty…I think your article was shitty. Love the site though…agree to disagree
viveutvivas
The choice could only have been made by a pathetic bunch of queers starved for any validation at all.
jimbryant
I personally don’t take The Advocate seriously. It is too commercial and slick, and appears to trivialize gay rights issues.
dustashed
Because hope is all we have left, Some of us haven’t given up on it yet. As cynical as I am, as cynical as I try to be.. I just can’t simply discard my faith because it is part of who I am the same way that being gay is part of who I am. It may not define every aspect of my life but it is an integral part of it. I understand that for some people, the scars and damage the church has done to them and their lives are insurmountable.. this is not the case for me. And although I have grown critical of the “Church” and her actions, it has not diminished my faith.
Reallyhere
While your suggestions and points are valid, as to the Pope “not actually doing anything” I take issue with the opening paragraph:
“Apparently, there was such a shortage of actual LGBT newsmakers this year that the magazine had to turn to the heterosexual community to find someone to honor.”
You say that as if all candidates for person of the year ought to be gay. You don’t know what the Pope’s sexual orientation is, nor should it matter: because if you want to fight bigotry, you cannot do it while being a bigot. Your jaded comment makes it seem as if anyone who is not gay yet who works for the equality rights of homosexuals is somehow inferior to those who did have the chance to be born gay.
Indeed, Evan Wolfson’s work is highly notable, but IMO, Awarding Person of the Year would be a gross understatement.
Then again, why am I taking anything seriously from Queerty, whose top stories are advertised as being:
Brad Pitt turns 50, Santa’s sexiest workers want you to consider Obamacare, WATCH: Andrew Christian’s Ho-Ho-Hoes Celebrate The Night Before Xmas, PHOTOS: What It’s Like In The Gay Bar At Ground Zero Of The Russian Olympics
Oh, yes… there’s some real news inbetween but not enough to balance out the frivolous smut.
The reason why the Pope’s “saying some stuff” is noteworthy is that he’s changing the message that’s been coming out of the Vatican for hundreds of years. Changing the vatican itself is a much bigger task, but he’s going after hearts and minds, and really seems to be trying to change the church and it’s followers for the good: so even though his statements on homosexuality are just statements, his actions in general for all of humanity are noteworthy and I would argue they DO qualify him for recognition, his sexual orientation nonwithstanding.
MK Ultra
Hope is a powerful thing. It can lead people out of darkness.
It can lead people into darkness.
I don’t think it’s “cynical” to be rightly suspicious of this absurd show by the Catholic church we’re all witnessing now.
It’s the smart, rational thing to do. Their past behavior spanning two millenia certainly suggests that anything the Catholic church says should be met with healthy skepticism. A few hilariously contrived PR events, especially at a time when the church’s image was increasingly negative, certainly doesn’t give them any more credibility.
And I’m a straight Catholic, so you know I’m legit, y’all (<—sarcasm font)
MK Ultra
@Reallyhere: Cool story, bro. The part about Francis “changing hearts and minds” reminds me of changing hearts and minds in the middle east by bombing them.
Convenient words, aren’ they? “Changing hearts and minds”.
Truly the meaningless corporate slogan of our time.
Tackle
I do agree with Queerty on this matter and the five reasons that Queerty listed. And this so-called honor by the Advocate was given too soon by someone who’s been the Pope for such a short period of time.
But let’s be fair Queerty, this is like the pot calling the kettle black. You do the exact same thing, but on a “much” smaller level, in your praise, honor and glory of straight actors, athletes,male models and musicians who really haven’t done sh#t for the community other then, wear the NO/H8 across their face. Play a gay character in a movie or play, show up at some gay foundraiser or awards event, and last but not least, just because they’re hott. (tt)…
Like I said, I do agree with the points that Queerty made about the Advocates choice. And from being familiar with Queerty for the past five yrs, as a reader and poster, I believe if this Pope had/did/said/believe, the same as he does now, but was considered, beautiful, or a sexy Pope, I’m sure that Queerty would give him a pass…
Rad
At first, I was taken back by the cover, but then I thought it through. It’s logical. Much like our President coming out in support of the GLBT community, the Pope’s statement, just that one sentence, impacts the MINDS of hundreds of millions of followers around the planet.
The GLBT community has risen so far this year, risen on the shoulders of the work of Edie Windsor and the legal teams fighting for marriage equality around the country. And though these victories were hard fought, the battle is not over; it will only take one more right wing swing back into the Presidency and congress and all this can be lost. With the Catholic church now seemingly on the brink of acceptance, that will go a long way to help keep our fight strong and standing.
Much like our Southern states now coming around to supporting benefits for same-sex National Guard couples, if the Pope’s statement raise change the thoughts of his parishioners, especially in countries where vitriol against gays is rampant, perhaps we have a shot at greater acceptance?
Go Advocate!
MikeE
The REAL problem is: the pope never said anything about “accepting gays”.
He said that the church spends too much time talking about them, that if gays want to be ministered by the church they are welcome ON CONDITION THAT THEY ACCEPT CHURCH DOCTRINE THAT HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN.
So basically, “Hey, church people, stop making us look like we’re obsessing over the gays”; and to the gays “but you gays, you can come to our church so long as you don’t actually, you know, be gay”.
The entire thing was an exercise in PR double-speak.
The Advocate is DEAD WRONG to choose this disgusting man as “person of the year” or to even suggest that his (in)action has been a “positive influence”.
D P
I love the Advocate. But don’t confuse the dress or kneeling before another man as indications of sexual identity or orientation. Open your eyes and take another look, Advocate.
Incidentally, I subscribe to the observations of Sam Harris. One observation is that moderate positions are dangerous such that they give cover to those who are extreme.
viveutvivas
@jimbryant, I agree with you. The Advocate is just braindead fluff, simply a vehicle for advertising to wannabe bourgeois white gay clones.
the other Greg
@Reallyhere: Yes! The Advocate went thru a long period – maybe they’re still in it – where they were absolutely thrilled by any hetero celebrity who made a nice noise about marriage (only marriage, no other “gay” subject).
They dutifully “reported” when Jason Mraz and his fiance said they refused to get married until there was marriage equality everywhere in the US. (Which seems like a nice way for a straight guy with a dumb girlfriend to postpone marriage until, like, the year 2023.) Alas, when Jason and his fiance broke up less than a year later, the Advocate had to ignore that “event.”
For some odd reason the Advocate was particularly awestruck by John Mayer, of all people, and liked to post pix of him shirtless. If you’ve never seen John Mayer shirtless… well, uh, he’s no Tom Daley… not even a Queerty-inexplicable Adam Levine… more like a Pillsbury Doughboy.
the other Greg
“Apparently, there was such a shortage of actual LGBT newsmakers this year that the magazine had to turn to the heterosexual community to find someone to honor.”
Wait a minute – the Pope is STRAIGHT?
Queerty, are you sure???
jonjct
gays elected the idiot in the white house for all the same reasons. meanwhile, get my Pope off the cover of your shi* magazine. how dare you.
AuntieChrist
@the other Greg: Yea the pope is straight..Straight to bed with the cute homeless guy after he washes his feet LOL
orcanyc
Your right WTF was the Advocate thinking!! SO many more deserving people who could have been named.
Spike
Where as here on Queerty, the man of the year is . . . .
TOM DALEY ! ! ! ! !
mz.sam
With the current state of printed media sales (thanks to Steve Jobs) the Advocate being one step away from ceasing publication is desperate enough with featuring controversial covers like so many once popular publications to increase sales quantity. This issue will backfire and in choosing the Pope’s mug will be the final nail to the magazine’s coffin.
Niall
Like someone said in another article I read. This is comparable to Paula Deen or the KKK coming out and saying, “ya know, these black people are actually not that bad once you get to know them” and then BET or NAACP awarding them an award for their work in advancing Black causes.
krystalkleer
couldn’t they have least photographed him in a more jazzier smock?
http://getoffmydress.blogspot.com/2013/12/ho-ho-hold-up-minute.html
tricky ricky
NEVER trust a pope! NEVER. good grief their is 2000 years of history proving that!
tricky ricky
@tricky ricky: there is 2000 worth of history. so ashamed I used the wrong form of there. but I’ve got a fever. that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
dougmc92
Queerty seems to have forgotten- in their Daleylust- that 2 other athletes came out this year- Robbie Rogers and Jason Collins- both said they were gay- unlike Tom who only said he was seeing a guy- but still fancied girls- hardly the stuff gay mnan of the year are made of. You guys have gone BEYOND THE PALE!!!
OzJosh
It’s worse than this article implies. It’s not just that he hasn’t actually done anything. It’s that the compassionate tone of his (non)statement was a cynically calculated and hypocritical attempt at spin, covering the fact that nothing is likely to change. It’s an attempt to deal with gay Catholics and liberal Catholics by giving them a load of flannel, while essentially shoving the issue back on ice. More importantly, The Advocate is lauding the Pope as a moral leader while the Catholic Church is still taking a hard line on the sexual and physical abuse of children over the past several decades. They continue to protect the perpetrators, attack the victims, resist compensation in the courts with all manner of dirty tactics, and they continue to lie about their knowledge and responsibility for the crimes – to courts, in public statements, and to official enquiries in various countries. This isn’t a man or an organisation that should be commended. The Pope and the Church are morally bankrupt.
bmwblonde
FACTS:
1. The Advocate remains pathetic and shallow (and is justifiably
foundering to to “Content Disadvantage”) (what else is new)
2. Its “award” to the Pope amounts to saying, “Thank you for not
hating us QUITE as vitriolically as before.”
3. The Catholic Church is one of the most evil, hypocritical
institutions Western history, despite some good people
accidentally having been occasionally related to it.
4. This Pope is worse than an overt enemy — he is a sneaky PR pro,
whose sole interest in pretending to look a TEENSY bit less hate-
mongering, is to stem the flight from “the” (ha) Church by young
people in the industrialized west, in droves (while he seeks to
use ignorance and fear to attract more suckers from the third world).
5. THIS month,”His” church poured all its resources and hatred into
Croatia to sponsor an anti-gay marriage referendum, which won, due
to Croatia being 80% Catholic and still an ignorant 3rd world
country, despite having marginally joined the EU.
6. So, all this is bad at so many levels, but NOT AT ALL surprising.
Or to quote an old Hillbilly mentor of mine:
“Only a fool gits mad at a skunk for stinkin.”
jar
I guess they couldn’t give it to Edie Windsor because she had the temerity to buck the gay orgs in deciding to go forward with her case. She is a threat to the gay rights industry that is too often more concerned with retaining their place of privilege than actually taking brave stands in favor of us.
Alice Norton
@hephaestion: Albino Luciani — RIP
Alice Norton
@hephaestion: @hephaestion: Albino Luciani — RIP
Alice Norton
Albino Luciani — RIP
Alice Norton
@MikeE: Early man invented god to explain the workings of the natural world around him. Some enterprising types saw the opportunity: power, money, control, sex. Thus, mankind’s longest running scam was born: RELIGION ! !
Alice Norton
@dustashed: Faith = invitation to be scammed
Benedict J. Harrisson
unbelievable…. soooo wrong; he’s a homophobe like the rest of them!!
Mitch Franks
There are so many others in the world that are doing more and are more deserving of Person of the Year than either of these two. Can we please stop the endless media attention given to him and her and focus some attention on people who are really doing something in this world !!!
Dennis Soper
The Advocate is too busy selling overpriced crap to upper-middle-class gay white males to care about our actual well-being. Which is a shame, because there was a time that it was a very good publication, at least, until it quit being a tabloid.
Peter Grant
Agreed
Johanna White
Did Pope Francis himself say that he told Kim Davis that she had “courage” or is this something Kim Davis said herself that this is what the Pope told her??
Bryan Corni
The Advocate need to apologize. Or be consistent, and make Kim Davis their woman of the year.
Paul Fucetola
How about they give it to the gay couple that fought that bigot Kim Davis and won they are the hero not this man in a white house dress.
Sean Ylinen
God I hate the Gay establishment sometimes. They fawn over anyone who doesn’t call for our execution.
Hal-James Pederson
YUCK.
Zenon Torin
Don Browning
I may disagree with the choice, but will never believe what was said at this alleged meeting until there is an unedited video of it released. Either side should be willing to do this to support their position!
Victor Martinez
Well, at least it wasn’t Caitlin….
Noel Hoklin
You have GOT to be kidding me! His analogy of Kim Davis being a conscientious objector is like telling a CO GI to go to battle but not shoot anybody! Ridiculous!!!
David Harlem
Her COURAGE…Kim Davis isn’t a courageous woman, she’s just a media whore (and a real slut) not wanting to do the job she was elected to do! And yes, I will keep repeating this over and over…she’s scum.
Jarodd Washington
I don’t like the both of them and yes both of you are judging gay people I wish that they would just leave gay people alone and look at your own sins
Doug Lia
He is a hater and a liar! He smiles out of both faces. He doesn’t deserve to wear white!
Donald Kirby
wtf! Cancel my subscription. More like devil of the year.
Mark Coassolo
Listen to only the words and so what if he had connection anyway. His message is to love anyone in any way. I understand this was kind of sneaked in most likely by the hate group Family Council that is pushing her. He talks about conscientious objecting and why not; but she didn’t do that, she took it upon herself to deny people rights when she did not have the right to do so. Her right to object means she resigned, took off work and stood out in front yelling with a sign and then went to jail, or stayed in jail. She didn’t do that but broke her oath and broke the law, and further forced her staff to both break their oath and the law. She’s not a martyr but a persecutor of the innocent victims that are/were the couples she disrespected their rights.
The Pope has a job to do and tried to not go too far with what he could at this time. He’s trying to move the church from the 17th century to maybe the early 20th century. Give him a break for now.
Anyway, what seems to be going on in this time of the Catholic canon progression is that the Church as always and still does expect that ALL sexual acts of ANY kind UNLESS it is for the SOLE PURPOSEof procreation is sin. This includes all sexuality that is outside of the bonds of Holy Matrimoney which is a sacrament. This notion is hard to fit ANYONE, since really, it is rather a hard thing to make happen for most all human beings. No sex unless you are going to purposefully make a baby and you must also be married after the Sacrament of Holy Matrimoney. Your seed and eggs are the gift from God for creating children. This is why the church doesn’t accept masturbation; you are spilling a part of potential life.
This is not a homosexual or heterosexual thing, but a notion that that is a problem with all sexuality. There is no difference between homo-sexual or hetero-sexual acts because the church really expects EVERYONE to be celebate. Everyone. Let’s all sit and conjur that one. The only gay person speaking at the “Family” conference in Philadelphia is a gay Catholic that is celebate.
This is probably, I’m just guessing, when the Holy Father says (I paraphrase) ‘ If you are gay and live a good life and pray, we’ll who am I to judge’. That is, in my view, the best that we really can expect for now. But his tone is so much more inclusive and perhaps will bring many of us back or even more to the church. This Pope brought me back and I am more blessed from it. For a long time I feel closer to grace. Thanks Pope Frank.
As I wrote above, we all are sinners and are “cafeteria” at times. Don’t tell me that everyone is a virgin anymore at their wedding night. We have to remember that regardless, these commandments are guidelines for all sinners. I’d worry more about killing, stealing, bearing false witness and the coveting of just about everything than people getting a little. I’d worry more about the second commandment of Christ that the Pope threw out to the Congress, the Golden Rule.
Kellie Allyn
Please no not man of the year
Scotty Be
#popefrancis is a coward.
Brian JC Kneeland
I agree that he is not – his recent meeting and support of Kim Davis shows that!
Michael Heathfield
Yet he tells the nut case from KY to be strong.
Arnold Stollar
He is Pope ,nobody’s fool?
Arnold Stollar
Would you like to be Pope?could you do as well as he did ?
Scott McIntosh
tional about the Pope, but really he’s just a Jesuit RATBAG
Larry Peterson
He declined a requested meeting with LGBT Catholics (right across the street from where he spoke) and arranged a meeting with non-Catholic, 4 time married, adulterous Kim Davis. I don’t need to know more.
Tony Chaplinski
he should not be voted anything of the year after such a HUGE mistake for even thinking about meeting with this person, let along actually doing it. Thought he was better then this
Louis Navarrete
Who cares? It’s the head of a museum attached to a dying superstition and his p.r. stunt backfired! move along. we still have a separation of church and state. work to keep that strong.
Jase Bloodwyn Ravencroft
How about Jim Obergefell? I’d rather see him get it than pope a dope.
M J Martinez Crogan
Vanessa Forbes
I don’t believe everything I read on the internet. I’ll wait till someone fact checks.
Alexander R. Rodriguez
Lolz. Gay Left afraid of the Pope. Crickets on Obama giving 150BILLION to a country that kills gay people and not killing pigs that throw gays off buildings. Whatever bitches……
David Friend Horn
What? not Caitlyn? (tongue in cheekl)
Victor Incerti
What a travesty! I guess he doesn’t judge anyone, even those that are essentially evil and hiding behind religious conscience. Maybe he would have forgiven Hitler if he was around back then.
Roy Lewis
Evidently he was ashamed of meeting with her because plans were made before he arrived and they were told to keep it a secret. He was afraid gay people would protest at his mass. He was afraid of gay people! He probably didn’t want to see a lot of his priests out in the crowd protesting.
Michael Robbie Halliwell
You people don’t understand that this is still the Catholic church…
Paul Huson
Iron fist wears white silk glove.
Kenneth L. Kish
Oh no you didn’t?
Jeff Rice
And his true colors come shining through… perhaps his Holiness should stick to corralling the pedo priests he oversees instead of encouraging bigoted hillbillies.
Jeffrey Jeannotte
Boo!!!
SumTin Mis
http://youtu.be/rTIorwtJbhE
Jay A. Scaramazzo
Steven Burr
If he met with Kim Davis he’s a traitor and an asshole
Eirik Erickson
The Advocate hasn’t been The Advocate in many a moon.
Janet Mcnulty
So wrong!
Vishal Singh
He’s a wolf is sheep’s clothing
Alejandro Padilla Jasso
I grew up with the Catholic Church being my moral compass. Those days are long over. Anyone, the pope, Kim Davis etc, who thinks I’m a second class citizen because I’m gay can kiss my Mexican ass!
Ra Hill
There Is Hypocrisy even in a Pope!!!
Gary Harryman
Pope Francis is a two-faced sneaky bigoted homophobe.
Jay Johnson
Lee Edick Jenny Hiler this is what I was talking about earlier
Alex Rothwell
I’ll say.
Brian Martenis
Wigs, secrecy and unmarked cars? That’s what people use when they know they are Wrong. Disgraceful and very sad.
Rissi Credici
Papa Francesco = ð??© ð??© ð??© ð??© ð??©