In an interview with a CBS news program,
Cardinal Timothy Dolan said that Pope
Francis’s recent comments on gay priests do
not represent a change in Church teaching
on homosexuality.
“Pope Francis would be the first to say, my
job isn’t to change Church teaching -- my
job is to present it as clearly as possible,”
said Cardinal Dolan in response to a
question from Gayle King. “But you’re onto
something, Gayle, when you say it could be
a change in tone or emphasis.”
He continued:
So what have we got? You might say two
levels or two points of Church teaching. One
would be the immorality, in God’s view, of
any sexual expression outside of the
relationship between a man and a woman
in lifelong, life-giving faithful marriage.
That’s one point of Church teaching.
The other point of Church teaching is that a
person’s identity, respect, the dignity and
love that he or she deserves, does not
depend on anything, not sexual orientation,
how much money we’ve got, if we’ve got a
green card or immigration papers, or a
stock portfolio. It does not depend on
anything other than that we are a child of
God made in his image and likeness.
“Homosexuality is not a sin, homosexual
acts are,” Cardinal Dolan added. “Just like
heterosexuality is not a sin, although
heterosexual acts outside a marriage,
lifelong, life-giving marriage between a
man and a woman, that would be sinful.”
“A pope couldn’t do that [change that
teaching],” he stated. “You see, a pope
inherits certain revelation, and it’s his job
to guard that and pass that on. That comes
not from him, the Church doesn’t make that
up. We inherit that from God’s revelation in
the Bible, in natural law, so we couldn’t
change that if we wanted to.”
Cardinal Dolan emphasized that previous
popes had a pastoral tone similar to that of
Pope Francis.
“I think we’ve got a question of emphasis
and tone,” he said. “A gentle, merciful,
understanding, compassionate tone. That
may be something people find new and
refreshing. I for one don’t think it is, and I
hate to see previous popes caricatured as