Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: LGBTQ Human Beings, "the Church Doesn't Owe You Understanding or Mercy, but Recognition"

Basque Franciscan theologian Jose Arregi tells LGBTQ human beings (his statement in Spanish is at the ATRIO site, and has been translated into English by Rebel Girl at Iglesia Descalza),

The Church doesn't owe you understanding or mercy, but recognition. Let it recognize what you are as good, as good as being a blond in a land of brunettes. And it's not enough to say as Pope Francis did when they asked him about homosexuals, "If they're like that, who am I to judge them?". It's good, it's already a lot, but imagine if a journalist had asked him, "Pope Francis, what do you think of a heterosexual couple?" Do you think the pope would have answered, "If life has made them that way, I am not the one to judge them"? Let the Catholic Church move from treating you with mercy to treating you with respect, and from respecting you tolerantly to really recognizing you. The problem is theirs. The problem is ours.

I'm grateful to Fra Rolando for pointing me to this essay in a recent comment here.