Pope Leo has declared that the Catholic Church’s unity should no longer revolve around sexual morality, positioning justice and equality as higher priorities in a statement experts say could reshape the direction of the world’s largest Christian denomination and its 1.4 billion members.
Speaking to reporters aboard his flight home following a four-nation Africa tour, the first American pope said: “The unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters. I believe there are much greater and more important issues such as justice, equality… that would all take priority before that particular issue.”
Experts immediately recognised the significance of the remarks. Rev. James Keenan of Boston College said the pope was “stating that the Vatican has a hierarchy of concerns and the perception that matters of sexuality have singular priority of place is not the case,” adding that it was “a prudential judgment by the pontiff that issues of blessing gay marriage ought not eclipse more immediate challenges of dictatorships and war.”
Vatican expert David Gibson called it Leo’s defining moment: “This seems like Leo’s ‘Who am I to judge?’ moment. He is about peace and justice and sees those moral teachings as equally important as sexual ethics.” Marianne Duddy-Burke of Dignity USA described the remarks as “a very significant and overdue reorientation of priorities.”