[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis said he will consider ‘openness’ to ‘transgender people’ when naming new US bishops: report

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Posted on 10/16/2024 7:52:23 PM PDT by ebb tide

Pope Francis allegedly ‘said that when he appoints new bishops in the US he will consider their openness to [so-called] transgender people as a criteria,’ according to a member of a meeting between Francis and the LGBT activist group New Ways Ministry.

Two people who participated in Pope Francis’ private meeting with New Ways Ministry on Saturday have attested that the Pope committed to consider “openness to transgender people” as a criteria for appointing new U.S. bishops.

According to Deacon Raymond Dever, who was cited in The Times, Francis was impacted by the closed-door meeting he had with LGBT activists.

The Times reported Dever – who was one of the 11 guests of Francis in the meeting – as saying that “Francis mentioned that situations experienced by [so-called] transgender people will be more on his mind.”

Dever added that “He [Francis] said that when he appoints new bishops in the US he will consider their openness to transgender[-identified] people as a criteria.”

The Times cited another member of the meeting who attested hearing the quoted comment from Francis.

LifeSiteNews contacted New Ways Ministry – the LGBT group that sponsored the meeting – asking if they could confirm the remarks attributed to Pope Francis, but did not receive an answer.

Held on Saturday, the meeting between Francis and the New Ways Ministry group lated nearly 90 minutes.

The guests “urged” Francis “to move past the Church’s negative approach” to so-called “gender-diverse people, and to encourage Church leaders to listen more attentively” to what they called “the lives and faith of LGBTQ+ people.”

READ: Pope urged to approve ‘sex changes’ during meeting with New Ways Ministry

Dever was one of five people in the meeting who shared a personal testimony with Francis. A retired married deacon, Dever is father of a “transgender” male who attempted suicide after “transitioning.”

Delivering his testimony to Francis, Dever stated about his son (now living as a “woman”) that “with our unconditional love and support, [he] eventually came out and transitioned fully, socially, legally, and medically, a process that took almost 10 years – if [he] hadn’t done that, [he] probably wouldn’t be alive today.”

However, transgender drugs have been linked to bone density loss, suicide risk, and other major medical problems and can leave individuals permanently infertile. Transgender surgeries aim to remove healthy organs, including genitals, thus making individuals infertile and mutilated.

Dever claimed that gender-confused people “are being excluded from the life of the church in too many dioceses and parishes – they are denied the sacraments, they are not allowed to attend Catholic schools.”

Instead, Dever and his wife urged the Church “to talk about, to learn, and to discern the truth about these issues.”

Catholic teaching rejects transgender ideology, affirms the reality of the two sexes, and condemns bodily mutilation, such as “gender transition” procedures, as “against the moral law.”

The Church also teaches, in accordance with Sacred Scripture and the constant Tradition of the Church, that homosexual activity is mortally sinful and a “sin that cries to heaven” and that the homosexual inclination is “objectively disordered.”

Another individual who testified at the meeting was “Michael Sennett,” a “transgender man” involved in church work “for many years,” who told Francis that he appreciated having had “sex-change” surgery.

There are a number of U.S. episcopal sees which could become vacant in the coming years as bishops reach the age of 75, at which point they submit their retirement to Francis who makes a decision on whether to accept it.

A number of prelates already seen as very much in line with Francis’ thinking, and open to LGBT issues, are already in key sees. Indeed, just two days before the NWM meeting Francis met with three of the U.S. bishops who conform to this description.

Cardinals Joseph Tobin, Blase Cupich and Robert McElroy were all received in private audience, with Tobin telling journalists the next day that he had personally requested it.

He said briefly that they discussed the Church, synodality, and “discernment,” stating that they are topics that the three cardinals talk about amongst themselves.

Notably, D.C. Cardinal Wilton Gregory was not present, stating later that “I didn’t get the invitation.”

NWM was co-founded by Sister Jeannine Gramick, the heterodox pro-LGBT nun whose official Vatican censure remains in place, though she has received signal favor from Francis in recent years.

Gramick was personally censured by the Vatican in 1999, and in 2010 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) further declared that New Ways Ministry “has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church” to speak on the LGBT issue.

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1 posted on 10/16/2024 7:52:23 PM PDT by ebb tide

To: Al Hitan; Fedora; irishjuggler; Jaded; kalee; markomalley; miele man; Mrs. Don-o; ...

2 posted on 10/16/2024 7:53:02 PM PDT by ebb tide ("The Spirit of Vatican II" is nothing more than a wicked "ideology" of the modernists.)

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