Cardinal Marcello Semeraro
Cardinal Marcello Semeraro is the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The 76-year-old cardinal from southern Italy previously served as bishop of Albano, a suburbicarian diocese located about 10 miles from Rome. He holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Lateran University.
Prior to being made a cardinal in 2020, Semeraro acted as the secretary for Pope Francis’ council of cardinal advisers for seven years.
Semeraro wrote the preface to Father Aristide Fumagalli’s book “Possible Love: Homosexual Persons and Christian Morality” in 2020.
In an interview with Corriere della Sera in 2016, Semeraro said that he had “no objection” to the legal recognition of civil same-sex unions as long as they “were not equated with the reality of marriage.”
The cardinal has also spoken publicly about his views on divorce and remarriage, telling the Quotidiano di Puglia in 2018: “I say that if divorced people want to remarry this is even a good thing: It means that they have not lost faith in marriage. And today the Church is very attentive to the subjective aspect of the issues, so it must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Times change. … The parent who always punishes is as ineffective as the parent who never punishes.”
Archbishop Bruno Forte
Archbishop Bruno Forte is a theologian who has served as the archbishop of Chieti-Vasto on Italy’s eastern coast since 2004. The 74-year-old archbishop is the author of numerous publications on theology, philosophy, and spirituality.
John Paul II asked him to preach the spiritual exercises at the Roman Curia’s Lenten retreat in 2004 after Forte helped to oversee the preparation of the Vatican document “Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past,” which preceded Pope John Paul II’s apology for historical sins by the Church in 2000.
Forte was also responsible for sections on homosexuality in the interim document for the first session of the Synod on the Family in 2014, according to National Catholic Register correspondent Edward Pentin, who wrote a book about the synod.
“The Church does not believe that the term ‘family’ can be used to refer both to a union between a man and a woman that is open to procreation and a same-sex union. Having said this, it seems obvious to me that humans have different experiences and have rights that must all be protected. The issue here, therefore, is not equating the two in all senses, including in terminological terms,” Forte said during the synod in 2014, according to La Stampa.
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“Naturally, this does not mean that we should rule out looking for a way to describe the rights of people living in same-sex unions. It is a question — I think — of being civilized and respecting people’s dignity.”
In 2023, Forte made headlines when he issued a statement on a local gay pride event, saying: “We pray that anyone involved in the event … will check their conscience on the goodness of their choices and, if they are believers, do so before God, with a sense of responsibility toward the entire ecclesial and civil community.”
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