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Nardin wrote:

Please excuse me for disagreeing again. I'm not exactly what you mean when you say that the scriptures didn't originally teach against being gay, as I'm pretty sure that the church has always held it as their teaching that it was wrong.

On the point of it being hard to see that the pope could be wrong, I would say that just because the pope makes some interpretation of the bible doesn't automatically mean that he's saying the right thing by orthodox Catholic standards. There have been plenty of times in the past where there have been popes that have lived immorally, and even those that have taught what would be considered borderline heretical. So my point is just that saying "the pope said so" doesn't make it an end all argument, if you see what I mean.

Well, looking at the past (I know we don't listen too much to the old testament but here's something)
When Leviticus (the part that says man shall not sleep with man) was written, the Greeks and Iralites were just finding each other, back then the greeks did a thing where they would sleep with boys up to the age of 17 as a form of mentorship. Isralites were disgusted by this and literally put it into their holy text.
It was a translation error that made it become man shall not sleep with man, instead of talking against pedophilia (which is arguably much worse)

Oh, if you mean by orthodox standards then you're right, his voice doesn't mean much. However as the head of the Catholic Church, the church with (I think) the most followers on earth, then it still has a huge impact. As an Anglican, my religious head is technically Queen Elizabeth, however it would be a miracle in and of itself if she said what the Pope said (monarchs don't get involved in politics too much nowadays, and this is very political)
On immoral popes, yeah, they did, and they got away with it because they had power and could just excommunicate anyone who threatened them, but they don't have that power today (and they actually care about the religious part of their job now instead of the money and power part).

I see what you mean, however it does end it for Catholics, and it might cause other faiths to follow him (tho probably not lol)