Seeing Is Believing

Ever since Pope Frances was elected Pope there has been a steady thawing in relationships between the Catholic Church and the LGBT community. Last week the Pope met with a trans man and this week the Pope met with a LGBT rights group,

Gay Catholic group gets VIP treatment at Vatican for first time
Reuters
By Philip Pullella
Feb 18, 2015

(Reuters) - A prominent American Catholic gay rights group was given VIP treatment for the first time at an audience with Pope Francis on Wednesday, a move members saw as a sign of change in the Roman Catholic Church.

"This is a sign of movement that's due to the Francis effect," said Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, which ministers to homosexual Catholics and promotes gay rights in the 1.2 billion-member Church.

Gramick and executive director Francis DeBernardo led a pilgrimage of 50 homosexual Catholics to the audience in St. Peter's Square.

They told Reuters in an interview afterwards that when the group came to Rome on Catholic pilgrimages during the papacies of Francis's predecessors John Paul and Benedict, "they just ignored us".

This time, a U.S. bishop and a top Vatican official backed their request and they sat in a front section with dignitaries and special Catholic groups. As the pope passed, they sang "All Are Welcome," a hymn symbolizing their desire for a more inclusive Church.

The web site Christian Today reported that,

The suggestion that the New Ways activists were given any special treatment by the Pope has now been refuted by Vatican sources. According to Catholic News Agency (CNA), the seats taken by the group are not considered to be superior, and are available on a first come, first served basis. "The group was treated as any other group of faithful in the square," CNA was told.

So what is the truth? Was it a step toward relaxing the church’s positions as reported by New Ways Ministry or were they just another group that just was standing line to see the Pope?

What I want to see before I believe in this new thaw is the church back off from opposing non-discrimination legislation. I don’t care what they tell their faithful but when they continue to block legislation for equal rights and oppose us from being able to sit in a restaurant and being served, then I will continue to see the same old church under a fancy wrapper.