The Pope was just featured in an article in Time talking about the meaning of Lent and how sacrifices and fasting should serve a greater purpose.
So, if we’re going to fast from anything this Lent, Francis suggests that even more than candy or alcohol, we fast from indifference towards others.
And that’s a great sentiment.
However, it comes a day after reports of his new book emerged where he compared the trans* community to nuclear bombs:
Francis claimed people who ‘manipulate’ their bodies are similar to ‘Herods’ that “destroy, that plot designs of death, that disfigure the face of man and woman, destroying creation.”
He made the comments in a new book published in Italy, Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, speaking out against what is known as gender theory.
“Let’s think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings,” Pope Francis stated, according to the National Catholic Reporter.
“Let’s think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation.”
And here is the big issue: trans* individuals, especially minors, are already at significantly higher rates of abuse, depression and assault. The Pope leads a church of 1.2 billion, and many of those members hang on to his every word.
When someone with that kind of clout and power says that an entire minority is “a manipulation of life,” there are consequences. Dire consequences for those individuals who already have to fear mob violence in their everyday life.
This also comes less than a month after The Pope endorsed a (failed) referendum to prohibit marriage equality and gay adoption rights in Slovakia.
The more and more I watch this pope, the more of the same it is. Lip service of actual respect and dignity, but the same harmful and hateful statements that lead to more violence and deaths. This Pope may have captured the hearts of the world, even those outside of the Catholic Church, but he is still dangerous, and still the leader of a very dangerous organization.
All my best,
Mike
