A Catholic Bishop in Favor of Gay Relationships?

by Michael Jones · 2010-05-07 09:35:00 UTC
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Christophe SchoenbornImagine a Roman Catholic Bishop saying that the Church should rethink its position on gay relationships. Then imagine this Catholic Bishop being a former student of Pope Benedict XVI. Now imagine that this Bishop is on track to perhaps someday be Pope. Sound like the stuff made of fantasy?

Think again. Such is the story of Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, who made some rather shocking comments to the UK Tablet, a Catholic newspaper in the country, that may just challenge the conventional wisdom that there's no hope for the institutional Catholic Church when it comes to LGBT issues.

According to the Tablet, Cardinal Schönborn said that the Church's mishandling of its global sex abuse scandal was appalling, and took to task some senior religious leaders for treating the scandal as a small blip. Then he denounced some Church leaders for blaming the sex abuse scandal on gays, and said that the Church has to have a huge "Come to Jesus" moment when it comes to its position on gay relationships.

"We should give more consideration to the quality of homosexual relationships," Cardinal Schönborn said. "A stable relationship is certainly better than if someone chooses to be promiscuous." The Tablet adds that the Cardinal said that lasting gay relationships deserve respect.

Somehow, it feels like the most appropriate thing to say here is "Holy shit!" Is it possible that there are other Cardinals and Bishops who feel similarly to Cardinal Schönborn, who might start speaking up?

The interesting thing to note about Cardinal Schönborn is that he's among the youngest members of the Church's Cardinal class, the senior level of bishops within the Catholic Church that gets together every time a Pope resigns or dies to elect a new one. A Web site dedicated to him (fan pages apparently aren't the sole domain of pop stars and teen heart throbs) notes that among the Catholic chattering classes, Cardinal Schönborn has been called "papabile."

No, that's not the relief pitcher of the Boston Red Sox (that's Papelbon). It's a word used to describe someone who might become Pope someday.

This is just one statement, of course, and it's not like Cardinal Schönborn went on record to say that same-sex relationships are as delicious as apple pie and lemonade.

But there's something to be said of a Cardinal who apparently has the ear of Pope Benedict XVI, saying that the Catholic Church needs to rethink its position on LGBT stuff. I'd say that's not only a big deal, it's potentially transformative.

Perhaps now the question is: just because Cardinal Schönborn has the ear of folks in the Vatican, does that mean that they'll consider listening to him?

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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