Pope's cry in the wilderness not enough

Catholic Theologian Steven Millies, in his Tribune Commentary, ‘Pope Francis' support for civil unions is a call to justice — and nothing new’ spent 862 words trying to paper over the Catholic Church’s centuries long and continuing demonization of consenting homosexual behavior. Church doctrine still holds the Church's respect for gay people cannot in any way lead to approval of homosexual behavior, which is intrinsically disordered, or to legal recognition of homosexual unions. Just because the Pope and some bishops have cautiously mentioned that the Church should respect the dignity of all people, including allowing gays the familial benefits of marriage without being married, does not signal any true fundamental change in Church doctrine. Millies implies it’s just wonderful that Church may possibly be inching its way into the 21st century of full respect for and inclusiveness of gay people and behavior. He’s thrilled the Vatican can “imagine the space that the church can occupy in this new reality” of full gay rights and acceptance. That is like saying the U.S. Supreme Court in ‘Plessey v. Ferguson (1896), could imagine that separate but equal was good enough for Black Americans. The imaginative thinking Millies says Catholics, including bishops and even the Pope are expressing, is really about how to maintain denigration of harmless behavior with the reality that such doctrine is unconscionable.