Cardinal: ‘Catholic church’s pro-gay text didn’t go far enough’

A British Cardinal has argued that the Catholic church’s axed proposal to make positive changes to its attitudes on homosexuality “didn’t go far enough”.

A paragraph discussing homosexuality that was included in a draft document posted to the Vatican Press Office’s website earlier this month (October 12) said that “homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community” – and acknowledged that same-sex relationships can bring good.

However, it later emerged that the pro-gay paragraph failed to receive the two-thirds majority vote from Bishops that it needed to be included in the finished document. The final version of the paragraph – which you can read here – was noticeably watered down.

The most senior Catholic cleric in the UK, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, told Radio 4 last week (October 19) that he “wasn’t satisfied” with the language that was used in the original text.

“I didn’t think it went far enough, there were three key words as far as I was concerned: ‘respect’, ‘welcome’ and ‘value'” said Nichols. “I was looking for those words and they weren’t there and so I didn’t think that was a good paragraph.”

He added: “I didn’t think it was a good text because it didn’t include those words strongly enough so I wasn’t satisfied with it.”

Senior members of the church will meet again in a year’s time to debate whether more changes should be made in regards to the faith’s approach toward homosexuality.