‘Francis effect’ earns gay rights group VIP seats

The Vatican did something it has never done before by giving a group of US gay and lesbian Catholics VIP seats at Pope Francis’ weekly general audience.

But in a sign that the welcome wasn’t all it could have been, the New Ways Ministry pilgrims were identified on the Vatican’s list of attendees only as a “group of lay people accompanied by a Sister of Loreto.”

And not even that got announced at yesterday’s audience: When a monsignor read out the different groups of pilgrims attending, he skipped that reference altogether. Francis didn’t mention them either.

New Ways Ministry officials were nevertheless pleased that they had been invited to sit up front by Monsignor Georg Gaenswein.

“This is a sign of movement that’s due to the Francis effect,” said Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, which ministers to homosexual Catholics and promotes gay rights in the 1.2 billion-member Church.

Gramick and executive director Francis DeBernardo led a pilgrimage of 50 homosexual Catholics to the audience in St Peter’s Square.

A US bishop and a top Vatican official backed their request and they sat in a front section with dignitaries and special Catholic groups. As the pope passed, they sang All Are Welcome, a hymn symbolising their desire for a more inclusive Church.

Several months after his election, Francis made his now-famous remark about how he could not judge gay people who have good will and are seeking God.

But he has so far shown no sign the Church will change its teaching that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.