Pope Francis fired Vatican officials who issued ban on same-sex ‘blessings’: homosexual papal confidant
Juan-Carlos Cruz revealed that his close relationship with Pope Francis involves regular calls and face-to-face visits.
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) –– A homosexual papal confidant has reiterated claims that Pope Francis removed all Vatican officials involved in issuing the 2021 document banning same-sex “blessings” in retaliation for the document.
Speaking at the 2023 pro-LGBT Outreach conference, run by prominent LGBT advocate Father James Martin SJ, Juan-Carlos Cruz revealed Francis’ reaction to the 2021 Vatican ban on same-sex “blessings.”
Cruz is an openly homosexual man appointed by Francis to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2021, and who has since become a regular visitor and confidant of Francis. His comments attacking the Church’s teaching on homosexuality came as part of Martin’s recent pro-LGBT Outreach conference at New York’s Fordham University
Referencing the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (CDF) 2021 document prohibiting same-sex “blessings,” Cruz described Francis’ reaction:
I saw his pain when – and I cannot say too much because he had really deep and profound conversations – but I wrote an article in a Chilean newspaper when that letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith came out two years ago, saying you can’t bless, you know, it’s a sin to bless marriages, whatever.
“He was hurt with that,” said Cruz about Francis, “because – and this is my view, I’m not a Vatican insider, in fact I’m scared of them – but I could see how hurt he was when people were horrified by it of course and he told me ‘Look, I didn’t sign it.’”
Such a statement “doesn’t explicate him,” said Cruz, as “he ultimately is the pope, but in his defense, you’ll have to trust me that the people that wrote that letter are no longer in the CDF. And that’s really good, but we need to do much, much more.”
At this, the participants of the conference broke into loud applause.
In March 2021, the CDF had declared that it is “not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex.” The CDF also emphasized that the “blessing” of homosexual unions “cannot be considered licit” since “blessings on persons are in relationship with the sacraments.”
READ: Fr. James Martin’s pro-gay advocacy hurts same-sex attracted Catholics
Cruz has made such claims before: in April 2021 he told Chilean news outlet La Tercera that Francis was “hurt” by the CDF repudiation of same-sex “blessings,” although the pope was “ultimately responsible.”
Cruz – who was previously told by Francis that “God made you gay” – told La Tercera: “This [CDF document] must be understood in the context of the Vatican, of the fanaticism of some. I know, because I have spoken to the pope, that he is very hurt by what happened.”
“I know he didn’t sign it,” said Cruz, adding he believed “in some way he [Francis] is going to repair this situation.”
It was then only five days after the release of the CDF document, Cruz was personally called by Francis on March 20 and appointed to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Cruz had publicly criticized the CDF ruling as an attempt “to defend the indefensible.”
Pope vs. Vatican
As Cruz argued, Pope Francis did indeed remove a CDF official credited with the document which has since proved so controversial amongst LGBT advocates. In January 2022, Archbishop Giacomo Morandi was named as bishop of the Italian diocese of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla, in what was billed as a move done in order to remove him from the Vatican’s halls of power. Morandi was the CDF’s secretary, thus number two in the high-ranking Vatican Congregation.
Some months later, another dissident pro-LGBT advocate – also noted for the favor she has found with Francis – similarly argued that the pope did not agree with the CDF officials over the 2021 document. In April 2022, Sr. Jeannine Gramick – the co-founder of dissident LGBT group New Ways Ministry – argued that the officials had been removed.
Pro-LGBT nun claims Pope Francis wasn’t fully aware of contents in document condemning same-sex ‘blessings’
Speaking to heretical group We Are Church Ireland, Gramick said that while she was “disappointed” with Francis for approving the document, she had been informed he had done so “with not full knowledge” of its contents:
What I find out behind the scenes is that yes, Pope Francis did sign off on the document, but with not full knowledge of what was in the document. And we now know within the last month or so that the person at the CDF who was really responsible for that document, has been transferred out. So he’s no longer there.
Questioned by Halligan as to whether Francis might therefore “rescind” the CDF document, Gramick answered that the removal of the official responsible for the document was Francis’ way of rescinding the document.
READ: Pope Francis praises Fr. James Martin’s pro-LGBT advocacy yet again in handwritten letter
“The way he rescinds it is to remove the person who did the damage, and put in people who won’t do damage in the future,” she said. “It’s all very subtle.”
Supporting Gramick’s claims is the English text of the CDF document itself, which bears the closing note that Francis “was informed and gave his assent to the publication of the above-mentioned Responsum ad dubium,” but does not say he examined or signed the document.
Indeed, since the document’s March 2021 issuing, Francis has made numerous public statements praising and supporting advocates of LGBT ideology and same-sex civil unions, particularly giving public praise and favor to heterodox LGBT advocates such as Martin and Gramick.