Ashes to Ashes

"If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
-- Jorge Mario Bergoglio

Well, for starters, who you are is the Pope.  So, if you're not willing to judge, I'd say that that speaks volumes.

Mind you, this isn't a current quote from Jorge Mario Bergoglio, or as he better known, Pope Francis, but one that he said over the past summer.  But on Ash Wednesday, Pope Francis went to the next step and address gay marriage in an interview here with Italian pulblication Corriere della Sera.

It is not remotely surprising that the Pope says in the interview, "Matrimony is between a man and a woman."  But what is surprising is that, rather than following up on that opinion by taking it to mean how such things between gays are against God's will and a sin, he showed understanding why there is some sort of validity to gay unions.

Efforts to "regulate diverse situations of cohabitation," he said, speaking of the growing success by supporters of gay marriage, "(are) driven by the need to regulate economic aspects among persons, as for instance to assure medical care."  Again, keep in mind that this is the Pope speaking.  The head of the entire Catholic Church.  And further, when asked if it was possible for the church to even understand this trend, something clearly not possible for some, he answered that "It is necessary to look at the diverse cases and evaluate them in their variety."

Given what a black-and-white, cut-and-dried, hell-and-damnation, Word of God, case-closed, door shut, bolted and locked issue this is for many who consider it one of biblical proportions, one can only imagine how such people will be able to adjust their own views to the teachings of the Bishop of Rome, who one would think knows a thing or two about bringing the word of Jesus Christ to mankind.

That Pope Francis's interview came on Ash Wednesday is whimsically appropriate, given that the religious certainty of zealots is now seemingly all in ashes