The LGBT news outlet “PinkNews” has censured Pope Francis for his failure to expressly call out the gay community in his statement of grief and condemnation for the brutal killing of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last Sunday.
In the official Vatican statement, Papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the Pope experienced “the deepest feelings of horror and condemnation, of pain and turmoil before this new manifestation of homicidal folly and senseless hatred.”
The statement said that Pope Francis “joins the families of the victims and all of the injured in prayer and in compassion,” praying that the Lord will comfort the victims’ families and friends and that “the causes of such terrible and absurd violence which so deeply upsets the desire for peace of the American people and of the whole of humanity” might promptly be identified and counteracted.
This statement was not good enough for PinkNews, which chastised the Pope for failing “to even acknowledge that the attack was homophobic or that it took place in a gay club.”
The news outlet said that in his role as the head of the Catholic Church, the Pope released an official statement “but it failed to actually mention that any the victims were gay, or that the shooting was homophobic, or that it took place in a gay bar.”
In point of fact, the Pope also omitted the fact that the shooter was Muslim, that he was allegedly gay himself, or that the killing took place almost a year to the day after the Charleston church shooting in 2015.
PinkNews contrasted the Pope’s comments with those of President Obama, who “directly acknowledged the hate crime element of the attack,” noting that this is “an especially heartbreaking day for all our friends – our fellow Americans – who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.”
Meanwhile, Canada’s Justin Trudeau said: “It is appalling that as many as 50 lives may have been lost to this domestic terror attack targeting the LGBTQ2 community,” PinkNews noted.
“On behalf of the Government of Canada, Sophie and I offer our condolences and prayers to the families and friends of those lost today, and wish a full recovery to all those injured. We stand in solidarity with Orlando and the LGBTQ2 community.
In an attack on Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, CNN journalist and gay activist Anderson Cooper similarly insisted on the need to embrace the entire LGBT agenda if one is to sincerely deplore the Orlando slaughter.
Cooper slammed Bondi as a “hypocrite” for lamenting the massacre while simultaneously opposing same-sex marriage.
Cooper discounted the presence of non-gays among the victims of the Orlando shooting, suggesting that the only victims that mattered were those who were LGBT.
Bondi insisted: “You know what today is about? Human beings. It’s about victims,” to which Cooper countered: “It’s about gay and lesbian victims.”
The Pope’s belief that the Orlando victims were all first and foremost human beings sharing an equal dignity has earned him the same censure.
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