Pope Francis continues to beef up his progressive credentials
Pope Francis, Pope of Popes, is at it again. He is on a roll of progressive change and seems intent on
leading the Catholic Church in a new direction:
Pope Francis is slated to hold his first public meeting with a married gay activist during a visit to Paraguay in July.
The activist is Simón Cazal, executive director of the Paraguayan LGBT rights group SOMOSGAY, who married another SOMOSGAY activist, Sergio López, in neighboring Argentina in 2012. Though the pope has reportedly held pastoral meetings with some LGBT people, this meeting marks the first time he will publicly meet with an LGBT political activist.
The invitation came directly from the church:
López told BuzzFeed News that the invitation came as a total surprise — the group had not requested to be included in the meeting. Paraguay also is one of the few South American countries where no protections exist for LGBT people or same-sex couples; their marriage in Argentina has no legal force in their country.
Obviously remains to be seen what, if any, actions Pope Francis might take in the future to make the Catholic Church more inclusive, but hey - let's have a tip of the ol' Pope hat to Francis for taking the church in a decidedly more progressive direction.