~~*`+`*~POPE FRANCIS STAND ON CATHOLIC CHURCH ISSUES~*`+`*~
Where might Pope Francis stand on 5 controversial church issues?
(..Reuters photo..)
Bergoglio's opinions: Newly elected Pope Francis,
the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina,
leads a mass with cardinals at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.
Prior to becoming Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio
has been outspoken against gay marriage, abortion,
same-sex adoption and other polarizing topics
within the Catholic Church.
On top of fixing decades of clerical sexual abuse and quelling
infighting within the church, newly elected Pope Francis faces a slew
of challenges many of his predecessors did not have. Today's Catholics
want to know how Francis views homosexuality, the expansion of
same-sex marriage rights, and how Catholic leaders rationalize what
many believe are archaic positions on contraception and abortion.
Below, we look at how Argentina's former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio
responded to some of these issues.
Gay marriage
Argentina legalized gay marriage in 2010, but not without
opposition from the country's Catholic leaders and the
archbishop of Buenos Aires at the time, Jorge Bergoglio,
now Pope Francis. He emphatically spoke out against the bill,
calling it a "destructive pretension against the plan of God"
and a "machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse
and deceive the children of God," LifeSiteNews reported.
He was most concerned it would destroy the sanctity of the family.
"The Argentine people will face a situation whose outcome can
seriously harm the family. ... At stake is the identity and
survival of the family: father, mother and children,"
Bergoglio wrote in a letter to the four monasteries of Argentina.
Same-sex adoption
In 2010, Bergoglio asserted that gay adoption was a form
of discrimination against children who would be deprived
of a mother and a father.
"At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated
against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by
a father and a mother and willed by God," he said. "At stake is the
total rejection of God's law engraved in our hearts."
The then-archbishop of Buenos Aires received a stern response from
Argentina's president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who equated
Bergoglio's message with Spanish Inquisition-era persecution.
Baptizing children born out of wedlock
While staunchly conservative in many regards, Bergoglio in 2012
admonished priests who refused to baptize babies born to
unmarried parents, calling the exclusion a form of "rigorous
and hypocritical neo-clericalism,"
the National Catholic Reporter reported.
"If children without legally married parents were denied baptisms,
God's people, like the rest of the world, would be driven away
from salvation," Bergoglio said.
Abortion
Bergoglio criticized a 2006 Argentinean measure to legalize abortion
in certain circumstances, such as when a pregnancy resulted from the rape
of a disabled or mentally ill person. He accused the government of
disrespecting the views of the majority and undermining the church's
position on the dignity of a person, the Catholic News reported. In 2007,
Bergoglio called abortion a "death sentence" for unborn children.
"Abortion is never a solution," he added.
Euthanasia
Bergoglio has decried assisted suicide and also lambasted
the Argentine government for refusing to fully pay for elder care
after a certain point. This he called "clandestine euthanasia."
"Today, elderly people are discarded when, in reality, they are
the seat of wisdom of the society," he said, according to Life News.
SOURCE: MSN News | By Eli Epstein of MSN News.
===============`+`===============
'Global National News Reporting'
"03/14/13"
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`I am but a star in the heavens above
guiding over you in God's eternal love
I once was a soul like you on earth now
a heavenly star in miracle of rebirth!
