Pope Francis Defrocks and Excommunicates Priest for Views on Gay Marriage

Pope Francis

Last week, an interview with Pope Francis was published by the National Catholic Review called “America Magazine”. In the interview, the Pope spoke of balance in the Catholic Church and the importance of speaking not just what we are against, such as gay marriage and abortion, but to also speak on the Gospel and what we stand for in our faith. Some media outlets on the left and those at Slate.com were quick to pin the Pope as a “flaming liberal” and took the Pope’s words as acceptance of abortion and gay marriage. Shortly after the interview was released, Pope Francis came out to publicly condemn abortion as evidence of a “throwaway culture.” The Pope said:

“Every unborn child, though unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of the Lord, who even before his birth, and then as soon as he was born, experienced the rejection of the world.”

To further show his support of Catholic values, Pope Francis has now defrocked and excommunicated a priest in Melbourne, Australia, because of his support of gay marriage and women in the clergy.

The Telegraph reported:

From all of last week’s headlines saying that the Pope wants to forget this nonsense about abortion and gays, you’d imagine that Germaine Greer had been elected to run the Catholic Church. Actually what the Pope was saying was that he wants the Church to talk more about what it’s for than what it’s against. But that doesn’t mean it won’t still be against those things that contradict its teachings and traditions.

Just ask Greg Reynolds of Melbourne – a priest who appears to have been both defrocked and excommunicated because of his radical views on women clergy and gay marriage. From Australia’s The Age:

The excommunication document – written in Latin and giving no reason – was dated May 31, meaning it comes under the authority of Pope Francis who made headlines on Thursday calling for a less rule-obsessed church.

The document might give no explicit reason, but the reason is implicit and well understood: Reynolds has offended Mother Church with his politics. It’s interesting to note that the former priest tells The Age that he “wants the same thing as the Pope” which is “to encourage reform and clear need for renewal in the church.” I read from this that Reynolds has, like many liberals, misunderstood Francis’ words. Structural reform is clearly necessary to prevent future horrors like the child abuse scandal, and renewal is something that Christians always desire. But Reynolds would throw out Catholic doctrine – something Francis would never do because he is, despite the best wishes of so many in the media, a Catholic. His treatment of Reynolds proves that point.

Sorry Libs, this Pope is conservative. 

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Thanks for sharing!