Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources Guðbrandsson has sent a letter to Pope Francis, challenging him to reverse the controversial decision that Catholic Priests shouldn’t bless same-sex relationships.
The Minister,Guðmundur Ingi posted the letter to Facebook, in which he encourages the pope to find courage through his prayers to stand with LGBT+ people. This is the second time the minister has sent a letter to the pope. The first time was in 2018 when he criticised Pope Francis’s comment that it was fashionable to be gay.
Guðmundur starts the letter by stating he has faith in Pope Francis, and that he thinks he wants to and can change attitudes towards LGBT+ people within as well as outside of the Catholic Church. “It makes me sad and disappointed to read that the Catholic Church can’t bless same-sex unions as God does not bless sin,” Guðmundur writes. “How can it be a sin to love who you love and want to seal it officially?” He calls the Catholic church’s message sad and anti-human.
“What’s even worse in this context is stating that God can bless sinners and allow them to change. LGBT people aren’t trying to change their gender or sexuality. That’s the whole point. We want to be acknowledged by the community as ourselves.” Guðmundur reminds the pope that people’s sexual orientation isn’t a lifestyle or a choice. “Sexual orientation isn’t a trend that will go in or out of style come spring.”
Guðmundur ends the letter by urging the pope to reverse the decision and stand with LGBT+ people and to find courage through prayers to help stop hostility and hate towards innocent people who just want to be who they are.
The letter is a response to the Catholic Church claiming that priests cannot bless same-sex unions as it is “impossible” for God to bless “sin, according to the Congregation for the doctrine of the Faith. In 2013, Pope Francis famously stated: “Who am I to judge gay people?”
