Out of all the things Pope Francis said at World Youth Day, the liberal media were buzzing about his refusal to judge a gay person who "accepts the Lord and has good will" – ignoring that Pope Francis still upheld the Catholic Catechism's teaching on homosexuality.
New Day co-hosts Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan sounded hopeful that the Pope's remark would lead to change down the road. "One thing is for sure, change only comes about through dialogue. So, the fact that the pope is addressing this at all means something," Cuomo said. [Video below the break. Audio here.]
"Yeah it's kind of maybe a first step, right" Bolduan chipped in. Later during the 10 a.m. ET hour of Newsroom, anchor Carol Costello implied that the huge crowds for the Pope's Sunday mass at World Youth Day were because many are "taken aback" with his words.
"Catholics are a little taken aback because of what the pope said. In fact, they are taken aback because of many things the Pope said. Maybe that's why so many millions of hopeful Catholics flocked to Pope Francis on that beach in Brazil. Yes, we know he's a rock star, but we didn't know he'd be quite this controversial."
"And if we needed more evidence that Pope Francis is a different kind of Catholic leader, well, look no further than the plane ride home from Brazil," anchor Brooke Baldwin hyped.
Below is a transcript of a segment which aired on New Day on July 29 at 8:04 a.m. EDT:
CHRIS CUOMO: Pope Francis back home after his first overseas trip to Brazil. The pontiff, speaking to reporters at length on the flight home about the role of women in the church and on gay Catholics. Remember, these were topics we thought he would not speak about because of church policy. Charles Hodson following the Pontiff's historic comments from London joins us now for a report. This is somewhat of a surprise, Charles, huh?
CHARLES HODSON, CNN anchor, World Business Today: It is, but I'm not sure. You know, it's an issue of style and substance. If you look at the style, yes, it is new for a Pope to be talking in these frank terms about these issues. If you look at the substance, maybe what he is saying isn't so new. On women, he is saying women should have a more prominent role in the church. But he's saying no to the idea of ordaining women as priests. So, in other words, straight down the line, straight down the line Roman Catholic teaching. No change there.
On gays, same kind of thing. Again, an issue of style. He's saying, if somebody is gay, who am I to judge him? Well, the problem is, though, if you look at the substance, particularly of some of the comments that he made following that up, he said the problem is not having this orientation being gay, said the Pope, we must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by disorientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies, this is the worst problem.
I think a lot of gay people are going to have a problem with this, because it feels as if they're being tarred with the same brush in being told, do not lobby for yourselves. You're not being judged. Just leave it to us to do something about you, to give you a fair share. And that really doesn't seem to me to be what many gays are wanting. And so, I'd say, maybe there's not so much new here, Chris and Kate.
CUOMO: All right. Charles Hodson, appreciate the report. One thing is for sure, change only comes about through dialogue. So, the fact that the Pope is addressing this at all means something.
BOLDUAN: Yeah it's kind of maybe a first step, right?
