God ‘does not disown’ LGBTQ people, Pope Francis says in handwritten letter to U.S. priest

Pope Francis said “God is Father and he does not disown any of his children,” telling an inquiring American Jesuit priest it is the most important thing for LGBTQ people to know about God.

The pope made his statements in what the Rev. James Martin, SJ, called “a mini-interview” that he initiated May 5.

Father Martin, whose ministry to gay Catholics has sparked controversy, had asked Francis whether the pontiff would answer “a few of the most common questions” those Catholics and their families ask him.

In his written response, Francis said “‘the style’ of God is ‘closeness, mercy and tenderness.’”

The pope also said gay Catholics should view rejection from others in the faith “not as ‘the rejection of the church,’ but instead [the rejection] of ‘people in the church.’”

Francis wrote, “The church is a mother and calls together all her children. Take for example the parable of those invited to the feast: ‘the just, the sinners, the rich and the poor, etc.’ [Matthew 22:1-15; Luke 14:15-24]. A ‘selective’ church, one of ‘pure blood,’ is not Holy Mother Church, but rather a sect.”

The pontiff said he would encourage gay Catholics “to read the book of the Acts of the Apostles. There they will find the image of the living church.”

This is not the first time Francis has spoken of greater understanding by the church for gay people. In 2013, shortly after his election, the pope generated global headlines when he told reporters traveling with him, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”

Three years later, speaking with Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli, Francis said he “was paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalized.”

The pope’s position appeared to be a departure from a 2005 Vatican declaration approved by Pope Benedict XVI. The document said those with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” should be dissuaded from becoming priests.

Father Martin reached out to the pontiff as part of the launch of Outreach.faith, described as “an LGBTQ Catholic resource,” sponsored by America Magazine, where the priest is an editor-at-large.