His Excellency: It was horror, consternation, sadness. Oh, this is incredible.
Christopher Wendt: Why do you see this event as a desecration of the Holy Door in the Jubilee Year, Your Excellency?
His Excellency: It was clear. I mean, the representatives and those responsible in the Holy See are not little children who don’t know anything. We cannot assume they are completely naive because they put this organization, which is known in Italy as a so-called LGBTQ organization, on the official Jubilee calendar. This organization advocates changing the Church’s teaching on homosexuality. They advocate legitimizing and approving homosexual acts and the homosexual lifestyle. This is not unknown.
Therefore, to put such an organization, and similar ones, not only this Italian organization but formally yes, on the official Jubilee calendar is a desecration of the Holy Year. It is a sign that the Holy See is accepting its goals. When you put something on the official agenda knowing their goals, which are not hidden, it is a de facto approval of their efforts to change God’s commandment.
It is not just the church teaching that homosexual acts are against nature, against reason, and against God’s will; it is God’s revealed will. It is not merely the teaching of the Church in the first place. Therefore, the Church is not competent at all to change anything in the sixth commandment. No.
It is so sad that those responsible from the top in the Holy See included this first in the official calendar and then de facto allowed it. You could reasonably foresee that they would use this to go through the Holy Door with their symbols, with the rainbow on the cross, even on their T-shirts, and so on. These are people who are not ready to change their lives, who are even proud to live a homosexual lifestyle. These people will go through the Holy Door not as repentant, asking the Church to help them change, but, on the contrary, asking the Church to change.
The Church must change, not we.
This is a provocation. This is a desecration. This was foreseeable. We cannot assume such a high degree of naivety in the Pope and his counselors there. Therefore, it is an unheard-of abomination that occurred in this context of the Holy Year, the Holy Door, which means going through it with a repentant heart. This is going through the Holy Door, a repentant heart. Their lifestyle, which they even propagate among these people, is not repentance.
We must be very clear here. Therefore, we must do repentance for these abuses of the Holy Year, abuse of the Holy Door, abuse of the Basilica, and the Mass which was celebrated specifically for them. We must do repentance and ask God that He must give Pope Leo the 14th delight, the strength, the courage, and the humility to make repentance or to do a kind of reparation. I mean, to clarify what was left behind, now this huge confusion, this ambiguity regarding Church doctrine and God’s commandment.
I think the Pope cannot simply continue in silence. This is a huge harm to the souls of these people, giving them the message, de facto, to continue their lifestyle. This is not pastoral. This is, I would say, not merciful. On the contrary, such an attitude is cruel because when the pastors of the Church do not admonish these people, with love and kindness, but admonish and help them change their lives to accept the will of God, the command, the sixth commandment of God, this must be stated clearly so they know it.
Then to tell them and invite them to a chaste life, chastity, they are also called not to commit homosexual acts and live that lifestyle. If they are really Christians, they must ask the Church, “Please help us to live chastely according to the Gospel as true Christians.”