Is the Catholic Church about to fundamentally change the way that it deals with the LGBT community?
During that private conversation, the Pope reportedly told Cruz that he is gay because God made him that way and that he should be happy with who he is.
These comments by the Pope are making headlines all over the planet, and many are wondering if we are about to witness an enormous shift in direction by the largest religious institution on the entire planet.
This is how the Los Angeles Times translated what Pope Francis told Cruz...
Cruz was quoted as having discussed his homosexuality with Francis. "He told me: 'Juan Carlos, I don't care about you being gay. God made you that way and loves you as you are and I don't mind. The pope loves you as you are, you have to be happy with who you are.' "
And this is how those same remarks were translated by a major British news source...
Speaking to Spanish newspaper El País, Cruz said: "He [the Pope] told me, 'Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter.
"God made you like this and loves you like this and I don't care.
"The pope loves you like this. You have to be happy with who you are."
There is some difference in wording between the two translations, but the meaning is very clear in both renditions.
Those comments stirred up a lot of controversy at the time, but that controversy quickly faded.
But now these latest comments from the Pope have a lot of conservatives up in arms.
For example, this is what Pat Buchanan had to say on the matter...
The idea that God is responsible for homosexual orientations, that the pope and the Catholic Church are fine with men being attracted to one another, and that those so oriented should be happy with it, appears, on its face, to be heresy.
It implies that what Catholics regarded for centuries as moral truth was wrong, or that moral truth has evolved and must be made to conform to modernity.
This is moral relativism: Truth changes with the times.
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