But does Papa Leone close to LGBT+themes?

Reflections by Massimo Battaglio

Sorry to have to talk about the Buriana who has agitated in these days the media and social networks about nine words not even so ambiguous pronounced by Pope Leo during an articulated speech to the diplomatic body of the Holy See. But it is a must. The words are as follows:

"Family, based on the stable union between man and woman"

The speech in which they are inserted counts 1427 words. The one that uses you most is "peace" (12 times). Follow "Truth" (8 times), "Justice" (4 times) and "Pope Francis" (3 times). As for the term "family" (also repeated 3 times), it is used to indicate three different things but relatives. The first is the ecclesial "diplomatic community"; the second, the "community of peoples". Finally, the parental community arrives understood as "small but true and prior society to every civil society" (definition of Leo XIII contained in the Rerum Novarum).

It seems significant to me that, in the last quote on the family, it does not say "based on marriage" but you use the much wider meaning of "stable union". Not many years ago, the field would have restricted not only to the official, double, but even the only based on the "sacrament of marriage" unions. All those who were not married according to the Catholic rite would thus be excluded, in fact asserting that they do not have the right to the political and social benefits desired for families. Equally significant it seems to me that Pope Leone adds immediately after:

"Furthermore, no one can exempt themselves from promoting contexts in which the dignity of each person is protected, especially of the more fragile and defenseless ones, from the unborn child to the elderly, from the patient to the unemployed, be it citizen or immigrant".

In short: the political attention that members of the deplomatic body will have to favor during this pontificate must be aimed at everyone. Distinctions of age, ethnicity and religion are not allowed, starting from those who currently enjoy less defenses (and I recognize me automatically).

It is incredible that, thanks to a title of Fanpage made with the clear purpose of ciabling likes, a good part of those who are used to inquiring, have concentrated only on "man and woman" and have read an attack on the LGBT+community. But it is seen that trust in the media titles that are nice to us is so blind that it leads many to fidget prematurely. On the other hand, it is difficult to resist media assertion such as

Pope Leo XIV closes to homosexual couples: "The family is based on the union between men and women". Pope Leo XIV clarified his position on homosexuality.

It should be noted that the homosexual question has not been appointed at all. And I'm sorry for Fanpage but, if a Pope intends to close with something, he does it explicitly. Otherwise, it means more than the speech remains pending.

The comments arrived immediately, massive, hammering, from at least three directions. On the one hand, the LGBT+ from keyboard people were raised, and were predictable. On the other hand, the New Ateist gained that they waited for nothing but grasping Pope Leo in the foul to demonstrate that the Church can only be reactionary. Finally, the new crusaders and the rosarianti, already ready to organize a te deum for the return to the sacred homophobia, cheered. It is interesting that Intalli and lovers of the red cloaks found themselves on the same position.

I suggest a slightly less militant reading, which starts from the context in which the offending phrase fits and the public to which it is addressed. This is an inaugural message aimed at officials who work in very different parts of the world. When the Pope speaks briefly in the face of an international assembly, it is in fact predictable an ability that he focuses on global or at least widespread global problems worldwide.

And the urgent themes worldwide on the family, especially in the non -European field, are not really those of accident in their definition the couples belonging to the LGBT+minority. Around the world, especially in Latin America and Africa, for example, there is the urgency of families who immediately disintegrate after the birth of every child if not before. There is to deal with the widespread problem of the completely absent fathers when not completely unknown (and not by choice of women but of the man). There is the scandal of street children, whose number far exceeds the homosexual population.

To say that the family is based on man and on women (which Pope Francis did several times), in this case, it means remembering that family responsibilities must be divided both on women and on man, which is not taken for granted in many cultures, especially the post-patriarchal ones in which the woman sings all the weight, from the economic support to the care of the children, while the male, when he is, reduces to get to his wife and children after a day after a day. To drink and smoke strange stuff.

These evils, because they are very widespread evils, require strong and immediate attention. And they are objectively priority compared to our LGBT+ instances because they concern entire populations, especially in their lower layers, including rainbow families. So, I would tend to forgive those who, speaking of the family, do not always have the fixed nail of LGBT+ people but maybe think of anything else.

If Pope Leone is open, closed or wide open to our themes, we will check it on itinere. Personally I am confident because, in the Church, you can only look forward or at most stay still. Going back is structurally possible.