Archbishop Charles Scicluna was reported in the Times of Malta on Monday as saying: “We need to give ourselves more time... but we have to work together to create an atmosphere and language that does not exclude gay people from the life of the Church.”

The prelate was reacting to the outcome of the Synod on the Family that ended last Sunday. The cardinals and bishops had been meeting and discussing for three weeks on issues that appear to split the Church into two factions: the so-called liberals and the so-called conservatives. The former would be those who acknowledge the signs of the times and are pushing for a more inclusive Church whereas the latter would be those who are not ready to budge a millimetre from Church teachings that date back centuries and were forged in an era when there was much less understanding and knowledge than today of the human condition.

In his closing address, Pope Francis spoke of what the synod was all about. It was not about settling all the issues, he said, or finding exhaustive solutions, but “about trying to view and interpret realities, today’s realities”. However, the two paragraphs which struck me most in the Pope’s address were those where he spoke about “closed hearts” and “conspiracy theories”.

Let me start with the first. Pope Francis said that the synod “was also about laying closed hearts, which bare the closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families”.

It would be presumptuous for me to presume what the Pope meant by “difficult cases and wounded families”, although the tension among the synod fathers was clearly on issues such as the re-admission of divorced and remarried Catholics to the sacraments and the attitude of the Church towards gay persons.

As a Christian and a Catholic, it saddens me when I find myself in a situation where I am more or less told to keep away

In the final report which was approved following a vote and presented to Pope Francis, the synod had this to say on gay persons: “The Church conforms its attitude to that of the Lord Jesus who offered himself for every person out of a love that knows no limits. With respect to families which experience persons having homosexual tendencies, the Church reaffirms that the dignity of each person, irrespective of his or her sexual inclination, must be respected and that such person must be welcomed with respect and care such that ‘any stamp of unjust discrimination’ is avoided. We reserve a specific attention to be given to the accompaniment of those families where there are persons having homosexual tendencies.” (My translation from the original in Italian.)

The report then goes on to refer to same sex marriage, reiterating long-standing Catholic teaching that “no basis exists to assimilate or establish analogies, not even remotely, between homosexual unions and God’s design on marriage and the family”. Furthermore, the final report says that the synod considers, in any case, totally unacceptable that the local Churches are being subjected to pressures in this matter and the international institutions are conditioning financial assistance to poor countries to the introduction of legislation that establishes same sex marriage.

There you have it. Once again, the door has been slammed absolutely shut although we were thankfully spared the usual platitudes about the Church condemning the sin and not the sinner. I am sure that the ill-timed and much publicised ‘coming out’ of Mgr Krzysztof Charamsa on the eve of the start of the synod did not help. Although the Polish priest stated that his intention was to make a lot of noise “for the good of the Church” and to apply “good Christian pressure” on the synod not to forget gay believers, I feel that he did much more harm than good.

With all due respect, rather than flaunting the fact that, as a priest, he was occupying an important office in the Holy See whilst being at the same time in a long-term relationship with another man, he should have made his choices long ago because the Latin Church requires its priests to remain celibate irrespective of theirsexual orientation.

Charamsa must have galvanised any opposition to greater openness towards gay persons because there are so many in the Church, and not just cardinals and bishops, who feel threatened by the fact that gay persons no longer feel obliged to hide in the closet.

This brings me to the second paragraph taken from the Pope’s speech which I would like to share a few thoughts on. The Pope also referred to the synod as an experience in “trying to open up broader horizons, rising above conspiracy theories and blinkered viewpoints, so as to defend and spread the freedom of the children of God, and to transmit the beauty of Christian Newness, at times encrusted in a language which is archaic or simply incomprehensible”.

I’m not sure whether Francis was referring to the text of the final report itself. The section I quoted earlier does refer to an “international conspiracy” linking aid to poor countries with legislation in favour of same sex marriages. What is certain is that with respect to gay persons, the Synod did not broaden horizons. It reiterated “blinkered viewpoints” which were “encrusted in a language which is archaic or simply incomprehensible”.

Therefore, I’m not sure whether Archbishop Scicluna too was concerned about this when he referred to the need “to create an atmosphere and language that does not exclude gay people”. He also spoke of the need “to give ourselves more time”. Time for what? Time for the Church to stop denying the truth about creation itself?

The Church teaches that all human beings are created in the image and after the likeness of God. Human dignity does not depend on a person’s skin colour, race, ability or disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. Gay persons do not have the luxury of “more time” because, like all other human beings, we only have one life and one never knows how long one will live.

Incidentally, the Pope’s words on “conspiracy theories” also recalled to me what has been happening locally in terms of the books which the MGRM presented to the Ministry for Education. There are some in Malta who claim that all that has been happening in terms of civil liberties, especially over the past two and a half years, is some sort of gay conspiracy. In April, a regular contributor to this newspaper referred to Malta as a “perverse world run by gay pressure”.

With regard to the books, the MGRM has been accused of “gender indoctrination”. A Facebook group has been set up for ‘Parents and Teachers against Gender Indoctrination of our Children’. It is a closed group, hence I could not view any of the posts. I am neither a parent nor a teacher, though I am against any form of indoctrination of our children.

Hence I was tempted to apply to join the group, however, I refrained from doing so lest the administrators of the group consider this as an attempt to infiltrate and indoctrinate others with my ideas.

Gender indoctrination is wrong but then so is religious or ideological indoctrination or indoctrination that comes under so many different guises. Yet, some parents do not seem so concerned except when the ‘gay’ word crops up. I suggest that they read the Pope’s address to his cardinals and bishops.

As a Christian and a Catholic, it saddens me when I find myself in a situation where I am more or less told to keep away. My faith has always been and remains of fundamental importance to me. However, my faith has also given me the freedom to be who I am and to exercise my freedom responsibly and unashamedly.