Pope Francis says parents should take gay children to psychiatrists

28th August 2018

“When it shows itself from childhood, there is a lot that can be done through psychiatry.”

The Pope has continued to be wildly inconsistent with his views on LGBTQ rights, this time claiming that gay children can be helped through psychiatry.

During his two-day visit in Ireland, Pope Francis was questioned on how to handle children with homosexual tendencies, to which he replied: “I would say first of all pray, not to condemn, to dialogue, to understand, to give space to the son or the daughter.”

He continued: “When it shows itself from childhood, there is a lot that can be done through psychiatry, to see how things are. It is something else if it shows itself after 20 years.

“Ignoring a son or daughter who has homosexual tendencies is an error of fatherhood or motherhood.”

Back in June, Francis refused to recognise same-sex couples and families as real.

During a meeting with Italian group Forum delle Famigilie, he said: “It is painful to say this today: People speak of varied families, of various kinds of families, [but] the family [as] man and woman in the image of God is the only one.”

However, earlier this year, a gay victim of clerical sexual abuse claimed the Pope offered him kind words of support in regards to his sexuality.

Juan Carlos Cruz told El País that he met with the leader of the Catholic Church to discuss the abuse he faced at the hands of Father Fernando Karadima, the Chilean priest found guilty of sexually abusing children in 2011.

“He told me, ‘Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like this and loves you like this and I don’t care. The Pope loves you like this. You have to be happy with who you are,’” revealed Cruz.

It wasn’t the first time Francis has shown a tolerant view towards homosexuality, despite Catholicism viewing it as being “ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil” and a “moral disorder”.

Back in 2016, he told reporters: “[Gay people] should not be discriminated against. They should be respected, accompanied pastorally.”

He added: “I think that the Church not only should apologise … to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologise to the poor as well. To the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by (being forced to) work. It must apologise for having blessed so many weapons.”