Two cardinals speaking to reporters ahead of Wednesday’s conclave offered starkly opposed ideas of how they hope the church proceeds on LGBTQ issues under the next pope.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, the 78-year-old Canadian Jesuit who serves as the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told CBS News that he has
“hope” that Pope Francis’ welcoming attitude toward LGBTQ Catholics continues.
On the other hand, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the German prelate who headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith until 2017, told an Italian newspaper that the next pope will need to confront the “gay lobby” in the church and uphold traditional church doctrine on issues of human sexuality.
While most debate ahead of the conclave has taken place behind closed doors, the two interviews offer a glimpse into how cardinals are considering the future of the church when it comes to controversial topics, including homosexuality.
In an interview posted on Friday, Cardinal Czerny was asked by Norah O’Donnell about Pope Francis’ famous declaration, “Who am I to judge?” Cardinal Czerny called that phrase “a change of attitude and style” toward LGBTQ issues in the church and said he is “sure of it” that the welcoming attitude would continue.
“It’s already continued,” the cardinal said. “You don’t want to collapse the whole church into the pope. You know, there’s a huge church out there, and so there’s a huge, huge variety and richness of responses.”
The cardinal pointed out that the pope’s more welcoming posture is already a reality in some church spaces and reflects the lived reality of some Catholics.
“I very much hope that the famous phrase, ‘who am I to judge,’ that people will say this, ‘I’ve lived this in my parish, I’ve lived this in my community, I’ve lived this in my school,’” he said.
But at least one of the 133 cardinal electors has a very different view of things.
Cardinal Müller, who clashed with Francis over the late pope’s views on LGBTQ inclusion, once calling the blessing of same-sex couples “blasphemy,” said in an interview published earlier this week that the next pope should take a harder line on LGBTQ issues.
Whoever is elected, he said, must be “strong on doctrine” and “determined to stand up to ideological lobbies, including the gay lobby.”
The cardinal, in comments made to La Stampa and reported on by The Catholic Herald,
Speaking about the “gay lobby” in the church, the cardinal said that a focus on doctrine is essential.
“Doctrine is not the property of the pope, the bishops or the faithful,” he said. “It must conform to the word of Jesus, no one can modify it.”
He expressed concern that some LGBTQ Catholics are pushing for same-sex relationships to be recognized by the church, which he said would violate church doctrine.
“If Jesus says that marriage is between a man and a woman, no one can change this doctrine,” Cardinal Müller said. “The homosexual lobby wants to equate marriage with unions between people of the same sex, but this totally contradicts the doctrine of the Bible.”
In an interview published Saturday with America Media’s Vatican Correspondent Gerard O’Connell, Cardinal Müller elaborated, saying that the pope’s document that allowed priests to bless same-sex couples “wasn’t necessary” and calling the pope’s “who am I to judge?” remarks confusing.
Regarding Fiducia Supplicans, the 2023 document that gave priests the ability to say yes to same-sex couples seeking a blessing, the cardinal said he believes it created confusion in part by appearing to separate doctrine from pastoral practice.
“Why create problems when the previous situation was clearer, even if not entirely clear?” he said.
The conclave begins on Wed., May 7, and some cardinals predict that a new pope could be elected just a couple of days later.
