...in Rome today. They had wanted to be welcomed publicly and give themselves a cheer - standard procedure for any group visiting St Peter's and crowding in to one of the big Papal audiences in the vast Paul VI Hall. Instead, the nearest the group got was a mention of their geographical area - which may have meant them and may not - while at the gathering in St Peter's Square where the Pope greets pilgrims, they got no mention at all.
Anyone can go to the gatherings in the Paul VI Hall and it's not hard to get seats near the front if you persevere. An official reads out the names of groups, and it's traditional to stand and get some applause - maybe even sing a song or call out a rousing greeting.
Failure to get a mention is a snub - not a particularly cruel one, just evidence of a prudent concern by the papal bureaucracy to ensure that loopy groups are, as far as possible, gently avoided.
Embarrassed, the organisers of the group contacted the media, and posed in St Peter's Square, announcing that they were greeted at the Vatican - untrue - and claiming that the Church's teaching on the wrongfulness of homosexual activity will change, which it won't.
All are welcome in the Church, lobby groups and all. But they need to be truthful: if they get invited in for tea it won't mean that Church teaching can change. As it happens, they weren't. And it won't because it can't.
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4 comments:
VERY WELL PUT AUNTIE
If the PR for the group had had words with Bergoglio first, perhaps they would have had all the fanfare needed to satisfy? Seriously.
That's precisely the point: they did make themselves known first.They thought they could get a propaganda boost by hoodwinking people, or by playing on the H. Father's known desire to teach mercy and goodwill...but they found that a lobby group is treated like a lobby group, and no one was fooled.And the Church's teaching can't and won't be changed, not by these tactics and not by any others.
Poor "Viterbo" - your disdain for the Pope is such that you can't even bear to say his name. Read him on the subject of God's mercy.
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