Pope: Be Accepting Of Gays, Lesbians, Divorcees.
WHITFIELD: All right, Pope Francis is calling on his church to be more tolerant of nontraditional families including same sex couples and divorced Catholics. This week, he put out a paper called on love in the family. He writes, quote, "A pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply moral laws as if they were stones to throw at people's lives." Just a month ago, Pope Francis commented on the U.S. presidential race, and took a not so subtle dig at Donald Trump. Joining me right now to talk about what this means for the church and its 1.2 billion Catholics around the world is CNN religion commentator, Father Edward Beck. Good to see you. OK, lots to talk about today. So this 265-page paper.</s>FATHER EDWARD BECK, CNN RELIGION COMMENTATOR: By the way, here it is. Look at that.</s>WHITFIELD: There it is there. A lot to read.</s>BECK: Good bedtime reading.</s>WHITFIELD: You say it does not highlight changes, but instead it is calling attention to things that are of great importance to the pope.</s>BECK: Fred, you know what's so great about it and people are reacting to, it's treating the faithful like adults. Vatican 2 documents talked about formation of one's conscience and that that's the highest moral barometer for making certain decisions within one's life and in the church. But then after that we didn't talk about it much. What this pope does in this document is to say that you are the arbitrary, you the faithful who are in the midst of difficult situations sometimes need to look at your life, enter a process of discernment, talk to your pastor, talk to other faithful Christians and come to decisions for yourselves. So what's so great, he's respecting one's dignity and capacity to discern for themselves where they need to be in the midst of these issues.</s>WHITFIELD: Let's breakdown some of those things. Divorced Catholics, in his view should be allowed to take communion. The pope saying this, quote, "The divorced who have entered a new union should be made to feel part of the church," end quote. Traditionally doesn't, continuing on with his statement, doesn't being part of the church include communion?</s>BECK: Yes. What he's saying is if you are divorced and you have remarried and haven't been able to get annulment for some reason that maybe for you, you can enter into this process and communion can be possible. You go to the priest and say look, I can't get annulment for these reasons, my children or ex-spouse isn't cooperative. But yet I really believe in the church, want to be more part of the church. You can with your conscience, in speaking with your pastor and other faithful say I believe I can go to communion because I want to be one with this community even though I can't reach the ideal now of having a sacramental marriage in the church. So it is really saying everybody has a shot here, but not everybody reaches it perfectly all at once. He talks about John Paul II used to talk about law of gradualness. It means kind of we're on the way. You're not always there right away, but if you're in process, maybe that's good enough.</s>WHITFIELD: The pope also addressing homosexuality, particularly at a time in this country where so many states are helping to fuel this argument and debate over so-called religious freedom bills. This is the pope in his words. Quote, "Every person regardless of sexual orientation ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration." He then goes on to say, quote, "At times the way we present our Christian beliefs and treat other people has helped to contribute to today's problematic situation." So this pope, he is not afraid of injecting himself in global dialogue, in this case, U.S. particularly some national dialogue with this topic as just the latest example. Why does he do this?</s>BECK: That's right, Fred. He does it because he believes we need to be part of the conversation. So he says discrimination against gays is never acceptable. That may say something to states currently dealing with that issue. But many gay people said he didn't go far enough because he says in this document same sex unions cannot be equated with traditional marriage between men and women. You say tolerate the gay people. Gay people say we want more than tolerance, we want equality. The pope is saying we want you to be part of us, want you to be part of our community, but we cannot put your unions on the same status as male, female, men, women, marriage because you can't procreate. Transmission of life is necessary for marriage. So there is disparity between what gays want, some gays, and what the pope is saying.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much. Father Beck, good to see you. Appreciate it.</s>BECK: You too, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: Stay with us. Next hour of NEWSROOM starts right now. Hello again, everyone. This is the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. At this hour, two landmark events in the race for president. Out west today, Democratic caucuses in Wyoming are set to start in just one hour. We have live pictures right now of people assembling there in (inaudible).