Pope Francis, apology not accepted

Today during a press conference held on the plane from Armenia to Rome, the pope said the Christian churches should apologize to groups they have marginalized, like LGBTQ people, women, the poor ...

"I believe that the church not only must say it's sorry ... to this person that is gay that it has offended," said the pope. "But it must say it's sorry to the poor, also, to mistreated women, to children forced to work."

In the same press conference, he also said no progress has been made on the issue of studying women deacons and that all it's only about study, not actually making women deacons ...

On women deacons, the pontiff was asked whether he had yet acted to create a commission to study the matter. As NCR first reported, Francis said he would create such a group during a meeting in May with the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), the umbrella organization of global Catholic women religious.

Francis first criticized the media coverage that decision received, mimicking headlines the next day that read: "The church opens the door to women deacons."

"Really?" the pope asked aloud. "I was a bit angry with the media because this is not saying the truth of the thing to the people."

Francis said the women religious had asked him only to study the matter. "Nothing more was asked," he said.

The pope said that after the meeting he asked both Cardinal Gerhard Muller, the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Sr. Carmen Sammut, the UISG president, to make a list of people he might consider for the group.

The cardinal and sister responded with names and "now, it is still on my desk to make this commission," said the pontiff.

"I believe we have studied this theme a lot in the 1980s and it will not be difficult to put light on this topic," he continued, mentioning a study the International Theological Commission did some decades ago.

I can't speak for LGBTQ folks, but maybe I can for women. Apologies are nice, but without any practical change to back them up, they are empty words. When the pope lets women be equals with men in the church, when he lets them be deacons and priests and cardinals, then I will accept the apology. I feel a biblical quotation coming on :) ... Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.