Group responds to pope’s call of same-sex unions

News that Pope Francis supports same-sex civil unions came as a welcome surprise this week to the leader of a Tulsa-based LGBTQ advocacy organization, while the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma refused to discuss the pope’s commentary at all.

“For us to have such a profound, positive, compassionate, humane statement made by a world religious leader that is respected around the globe — it’s incredibly affirming,” Oklahomans for Equality CEO and Executive Director Toby Jenkins said Thursday.

Pope Francis made international news this week after his comments during a May 2019 interview were used in the documentary “Francesco,” which premiered Wednesday.

He is quoted as saying, “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God,” as well as calling for civil unions to ensure that such couples’ relationships are “legally covered.”

Asked Thursday to comment on the pope’s statements, Dave Crenshaw, a spokesman for Bishop David A. Konderla’s office, said the diocese would not do so.

“He doesn’t speak for the pope,” Crenshaw said simply of Konderla’s position.

However, in June Konderla spoke out against the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects employees from discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

“It is not possible to change human nature by legislative means,” Konderla said in a June 17 news release from the diocese. “Before this unjust ruling, persons are born male and female and that remains true after it. What the ruling does do is mar the credibility of the court.”

The Oklahoman reported Wednesday that the Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, issued a statement indicating that he respects Pope Francis’ “pastoral concerns” for marginalized people, but he said his comments were “most likely” related to his duty rather than a sign of change in church teachings.

Pope Francis had previously voiced support for civil unions, distinguishing them from marriage in the church, while serving as archbishop in Buenos Aires, according to The Associated Press. The AP on Thursday revealed that Francis’s comments on same-sex couples did not make the airwaves last year due to his past support for civil unions and a desire to focus on his remarks regarding clergy sexual abuse.

But Jenkins said he wished the pope’s support went beyond civil unions, as marriage equality has been legal in all of the United States since the Supreme Court ruled in the Obergefell v. Hodges case in 2015. It has been legal in Oklahoma since 2014.

Jenkins said the concept of marriage remains distinct from a civil union and said he believes that allowing only civil unions would in practice unfairly create a “marriage-lite” or so-called “separate but equal” arrangement.

Notably, the Catholic Church defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. The New York Times reported in 2010 that the pope, then serving as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, opposed legalization of marriage equality in Argentina and called it a “destructive attack on God’s plan.”

Jenkins, though, said there are multiple faith leaders in Tulsa and elsewhere who are affirming of LGBTQ individuals, including presiding over marriage ceremonies.

The Oklahoman reported this week that two Oklahoma City-area Catholic Church pastors considered the pope’s comments “confusing” because of the church’s view on same-sex relationships and the issue, in their view, being one of civil law rather than religious doctrine.

“I’m a Bible reader, and I’m a churchgoer, and I know that interpretation is an issue when it comes to this,” Jenkins said.

“So for (Pope Francis) to speak up and say we deserve to have families and don’t deserve to be discarded … is incredibly compassionate. And it’s consistent with what we’re seeing around the world, where religious communities are beginning to consider the trauma done to individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

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