Pope Francis: The Pontiff Who Sought Forgiveness For Clergy Abuse And Opened Doors To LGBTQ Dialogue

News18

21-04-2025

The pope's 12-year papacy was defined by moral clarity—confronting clerical abuse with public apologies and offering LGBTQ Catholics a long-denied place at the table
Pope Francis, who passed away on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, at the age of 88, leaves behind a 12-year papacy shaped by moral reckoning and radical compassion. As the first Jesuit and the first Latin American to lead the Catholic Church, his tenure was marked by a deep engagement with two of its most painful and controversial issues: the sexual abuse of minors by clergy, and the Church's historically fraught relationship with LGBTQ individuals.
While he did not overturn doctrine, Francis reshaped the Church's tone — asking forgiveness for its past failures and opening doors to previously marginalised voices. From declining the Apostolic Palace in favour of a modest guesthouse to choosing a Ford Focus over the popemobile, he consistently opted for simplicity over tradition—signalling a break from Vatican pomp.
One of the deepest wounds Pope Francis confronted was the global crisis of child sexual abuse by clergy—an issue that had plagued the Church for decades. Though the scandal predated his papacy, Francis placed the issue firmly at the centre of Vatican reform.
In 2018, during a visit to Ireland, one of the countries most devastated by clerical abuse, he issued one of the strongest apologies by a sitting pontiff. 'We ask forgiveness for the times that as a Church, we did not show the survivors of whatever kind of abuse compassion and the seeking of justice and truth by concrete actions," he declared at the World Meeting of Families.
But he matched words with action—implementing structural changes. In 2014, he set up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to institutionalise safeguarding mechanisms. In 2019, he lifted the 'pontifical secret", a long-standing rule that had cloaked abuse investigations in secrecy, and he introduced Vos Estis Lux Mundi, a new Church law requiring all clergy to report abuse or cover-ups to Church authorities.
In 2018, he accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington, DC, who became one of the highest-ranking Church figures ever to be defrocked over sexual abuse allegations. The move was seen as a watershed moment, signalling that even the most senior members of the hierarchy would no longer be shielded.
Under Francis, the Church also began observing an annual 'Day of Prayer" for victims and survivors of abuse in many countries, integrating public acknowledgement and mourning into the liturgical calendar.
Yet, his record remained uneven. His initial defence of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros—accused of covering up abuse—sparked outrage, prompting a rare reversal and apology. The episode highlighted the tension between institutional inertia and his personal commitment to victims. Still, survivor groups acknowledged his efforts to bring transparency to the Church's opaque handling of abuse cases, even if much remained to be done.
'WHO AM I TO JUDGE?': OPENING THE CHURCH TO LGBTQ DIALOGUE
If sexual abuse was the moral reckoning of his papacy, Pope Francis's approach to LGBTQ issues marked its compassionate pivot.
Just months after becoming Pope in 2013, he famously responded to a question about gay priests with: 'If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" It was a simple sentence that reverberated globally—reframing decades of Vatican condemnation with a message of humility and human dignity.
While Church teaching on homosexuality did not change, Francis shifted its tone. He welcomed gay individuals and couples in private audiences, met with transgender persons, and condemned laws criminalising homosexuality. 'Being homosexual is not a crime," he said in 2023, adding that laws targeting LGBTQ people were 'unjust" and rooted in prejudice.
He became the first pope to endorse civil unions, stating in the 2020 documentary Francesco: 'Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God… What we have to have is a civil union law." And in one of his final reforms, Francis approved the Vatican declaration Fiducia Supplicans in 2023, allowing priests to bless same-sex couples in informal settings—an unprecedented move within Catholicism that drew ire from conservatives but joy from many LGBTQ believers.
For the first time, LGBTQ Catholics were formally invited to take part in Church-wide consultations during the Synod on Synodality (2023–2024). While the process did not lead to doctrinal changes, it marked an important step in Pope Francis's effort to make the Church more open, inclusive, and willing to listen to voices that had long been left out.
A PASTORAL LEGACY THAT REDEFINED THE PAPACY
Pope Francis was not a doctrinal radical. He did not permit women priests, nor did he revise core teachings on sexuality or marriage. But what he did change, profoundly, was tone. He recentered the papacy around dialogue, empathy and the act of listening.
Throughout his final years, even as he battled illness and limited mobility, Francis remained active—travelling, addressing global issues like climate change and inequality, and delivering what would be his last Easter blessing on April 20, 2025.
With his passing, the Catholic Church enters a period of mourning and transition. But the legacy Francis left behind, one of compassion without compromise, and of accountability without vengeance, will shape its path for years to come.
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