exclamation

Important notice: To continue serving our valued readers during the postal disruption, complete unrestricted access to the digital edition is available at no extra cost. This will ensure uninterrupted digital access to your copies. Click here to view the digital edition, or learn more.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput during the Festival of Families announcement at the Pontifical North American College in Rome on June 23, 2015. Photo courtesy of Chris Warde-Jones, Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Don’t expect church to change views on gay families, Philadelphia archbishop says

By  Rosie Scammell, Religion News Service
  • June 29, 2015

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis is expected to draw a crowd of up to 2 million people to Philadelphia at the end of September’s World Meeting of Families, event organizers said during a visit to Rome June 25.

Topics up for discussion at the congress include immigration, family finances and Internet use within the home.

But visitors should not expect the church to change its views on gay families, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput told journalists at the Vatican on Thursday.

“People who have experienced same-sex attraction” will be welcome in Philadelphia, he said, but he was clear in stating that the congress would not be open to supporting gay families.

“We don’t want to provide a platform at the meeting for people to lobby for positions contrary to the life of the church,” he said.

The pontiff will arrive in Philadelphia on Sept. 26 after the four-day congress, which is due to draw Catholics from around the world to discuss family issues. The following day he will say Mass outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The ceremony is expected to attract a crowd of up to 2 million, said Bishop John J. McIntyre, auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia.

Preparations are well underway for the visit — Pope Francis’  first to the U.S. since being elected pontiff in 2013. More than 6,100 volunteers already have registered to lend a hand.

More than 11,800 people have signed up so far for the World Meeting of Families, with most delegates coming from across the U.S. Significant numbers will also travel from Canada, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic and Nigeria; more than 100 countries will be represented.

The scale of the event entails a $45 million budget, more than $30 million of which has already been raised, said Chaput.

“Much of that is for crowd safety and for infrastructure,” Chaput said. “The congress itself probably costs $2 million to $3 million.”

Please support The Catholic Register

Unlike many media companies, The Catholic Register has never charged readers for access to the news and information on our website. We want to keep our award-winning journalism as widely available as possible. But we need your help.

For more than 125 years, The Register has been a trusted source of faith-based journalism. By making even a small donation you help ensure our future as an important voice in the Catholic Church. If you support the mission of Catholic journalism, please donate today. Thank you.

DONATE