DAMIAN THOMPSON writing in The Telegraph reports: 'In his
Christmas sermon, Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta condemned adoption by
same-sex couples. He insisted that God's own son was raised by a man and a
woman, and not by two men or two women.
How divisive! said the media. But now it turns out that
Bishop Scicluna met Pope Francis on December 12. The bishop later told the
Times of Malta: 'We discussed many aspects… and when I raised the issue that's
worrying me as a bishop [the right for gay couples to adopt] he encouraged me
to speak out.'
Indeed, the Pope was 'shocked' to learn that Malta's
proposed Civil Union bill allows gay adoption. And Bishop's Scicluna's
controversial sermon seems to have been delivered at his prompting.
None of this should be surprising: back in Argentina,
Cardinal Bergoglio roundly condemned gay adoption and said that gay marriage
was diabolically inspired. But confusingly - and I still can't quite figure
this out in my head - he did clearly back civil partnerships as the lesser of two
evils. (When Archbishop Vincent Nichols appeared to do that, his critics in the
Vatican were furious.)
What we can say, I think, is that the media read far too
much into the Pope's 'who am I to judge?' comment about gay Christians in his
impromptu interview on the way back from Rio. If Time magazine gave Francis its
Person of the Year on the basis of his relaxed attitude to homosexuality, it
should have done its homework more thoroughly.
