Pope Francis wants the Catholic Church to apologize to gay people and others

The most liberal Pope of all and Times Person of the Year 2013, Pope Francis has waded on the issue of gay rights and treatment. 

The comment of the Pope came at the backdrop of the recent comments of German Cardinal, Reinhard Cardinal Marx who in his speech in Ireland stated that the gay community have been treated unfairly by the Church and even the society at large, as a result, the Church should apologize.

On his way from Armenia where he was for two days, the Pope was asked by reporter if he was in support of Cardinal Marx's statement that the Church should apologize to the LGBT community, and he said yes. In fact, the Pope added that not just should the Church apologize to the LGBT community, it must also apologize to all the categories of persons who had been treated unfairly by the Church and the society in the past. He reminded the Church that what is condemned is the act and not the person.

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He made this statement with partial reference to the Pulse Nightclub shooting that claimed the lives of 49 persons majority of whom were members of the LGBT community.  

According to the Bishop of Rome, "the Church not only should apologize ...to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologize to the poor as well, to women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by work. It must apologize for having blessed so many weapons."

The Pope made this statement after his visit to Armenia where he condemned unreservedly the "genocide" of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks a century ago. In condemning the "genocide", the Pontiff stated thus; "sadly that tragedy, that genocide, was the first of the deplorable series of catastrophes of the past century, made possible by twisted racial, ideological or religious aims that darkened the minds of the tormentors even to the point of planning the annihilation of entire peoples."

He condemned the indifference of the international society to issues of ethnic genocides. 

In addition to the issues of LGBT and the Church apology, His Holiness took time to express his opinions on contemporary issues like the BREXIT, women deacons in the Catholic Church as well as the rumors about the stealth leadership tussle between him and the Pope Emeritus, Pope Benedict XVI.

On the issue of BREXIT, the Pope hinted that "brotherhood is better than being enemies or distant." He however admonished the European Union to take this time to restructure the system. According to the Pope, "There is something that is not working in the bulky union, but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water, let's try to jump-start things, to re-create."

The Pope further hinted on the Church proposal to ordain women as deacons but maintained the subject is still under study by a commission and not yet a commitment on the part of the Church. He stressed that the most important thing is that the Church now hears the voice of the women.