Pope Francis On Tolerance. Cardinal Dolan On Cemeteries

“If a person is gay, seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis said. “They should not be marginalized.”So spoke this oddly humble and dynamic new pope, and with an apparent acknowledgement of the inherent nature of homosexuality (use of the verb “is” rather than “chooses to live as” or “believes he is,” or any number of dismissive things) that to my knowledge has never been approached by a person in his position.Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, insists regardless that his boss’ remarks don’t change Catholic teaching on the issue: Acting on the desire for romantic love with a person of the same sex, even if the desire is ingrained (as Francis came about as close as I’ve ever heard anyone at his level in my faith to saying), is still a sin.If the pope essentially agrees with Dolan, I’d hardly be surprised. Many conservative Christians of different faiths believe that, for reasons we don’t understand, God saddles some of us with desires for love and intimacy that cannot be acted upon even between consenting adults with the best of intentions and beliefs.But I suspect that Francis might be, if not confronting the issue in a way that I’d personally find satisfactory, at least putting it in perspective. In Spanish he might say “que se preocupan?”Or in English, “who cares?”He remains, to my knowledge, regrettably resolute on a lesser role for women in the Church, and probably other issues I’d likely dispute. But where intimacy and desire are concerned, maybe he sees a world so shattered by poverty, disease, needless inequality and hate that he’s shifting the Church’s heretofore laser-like and dubious focus on homosexuality. Maybe he sees the need for a break from obsessing over which decent, charitable and productive adult is loving which similar adult and why. Maybe this is what brought him, plunging through crowds and and ditching his security detail, to Varginha shantytown, a Rio ghetto so violent it’s known as the Gaza Strip.My parents helped build the church I grew up in. Our priests were Franciscan "atonement" Friars, imperfect but decent and holy men who never harmed me or anyone I knew, and I am deeply grateful. It was these men and my own mother who taught me that it was Francis of Assisi who was called upon as a young rich man by God to “go and rebuild my Church, which you see is in ruins.” I don’t know how Pope Francis views the Church. But I can guess how he views the world. Perhaps he’s setting priorities accordingly.Sex matters. Love matters. These are crucial gifts from God that merit theological discussion, even if I don’t agree with some conclusions. But maybe, right now, things like child malnutrition matter more. The Dolans of world don’t seem to grasp this, still arguing with smug insistency that the secular recognition of gay marriage threatens somehow the fabric of society. This is the same man who, as Archbishop of Milwaukee, moved tens of millions of dollars into a cemetery trust fund, apparently in a cynical attempt to shield it from victim lawsuits.Lest I be accused of being overly cynical myself, I have no doubt what Dolan experienced as the leader of that broken archdiocese was nothing less than the gut-wrenching, sickening realization that not a handful but probably thousands of the most vulnerable and innocent of his flock had been subjected to life-altering and soul-crushing evil at the hands of brother priests and other religious. It must have been terrifying for him to contemplate, and then devastating to accept. I have far less invested in Catholicism than Dolan, and it has been the spiritual heartbreak of my lifetime. And yet his response was to protect the coffers first, regardless of what justice might have demanded, let alone things like financial support for victims needing therapy and counseling from torments as diverse as alcoholism and panic attacks, but all relating back to their abuse.It was abuse that took place in the context of their faith. Dolan protected graves.