We Should Apologize NOW ! ! !

One thing to always remember about Papa Francesco: On many issues, he's a decent guy trying to do the best he can to turn a 2000-year-old barnacle-encrusted supertanker of an institution onto a course that's more decent and humane than the one it's been on for most of its existence, or roughly since the Founder blew town having made the capital mistake of leaving his business for human beings to run. 

So, over the weekend, when hbe was asked whether HMC should apologize for its abominable treatment of gay people down through the millennia, Papa Francesco went about as far as he's likely to go.

He said some politicized behaviors of the homosexual community can be condemned for being "a bit offensive for others." 

But he said: "Someone who has this condition, who has good will and is searching for God, who are we to judge?" 

"We must accompany them," Francis said. "I think the church must not only apologize ... to a gay person it offended, but we must apologize to the poor, to women who have been exploited, to children forced into labor, apologize for having blessed so many weapons" and for having failed to accompany families who faced divorces or experienced other problems. Read more: