Welcome back to this new week on the podcast on this Monday.

Well back in 2023, last year ended with two huge declarations that got a lot of attention online

and led to a pile of emails for you, Pastor John. First and most talked about

the Pope said that Roman Catholic priests can now bless so-called same-sex couples,

which is a move that confused and angered many Catholics and non-Catholic alike as you would expect.

And according to the Vatican statement, this blessing... Catholics alike as you would expect.

And according to the Vatican's statement, this blessing is, quote,

for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex,

the form of which should not be fixed ritually by ecclesiastical authorities to avoid

producing confusion with the blessing proper to the sacrament of marriage."

This so-called divine blessing is for those who of marriage, end quote.

This so-called divine blessing is for those who they say, quote, recognizing themselves to

be destitute and in need of God's help do not claim a legitimization of their own status but who beg that all that is true, good,

and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit."

End quote.

You can see the Pope here trying very hard to thread a needle, but more bluntly, two weeks after this Reuters reported that Burundi President Evarista

Nadishi I will not be able to say his last name the Burund president, he called on his citizens to respond in a different way,

quote, if you want to attract a curse to the country accept homosexuality, he told journalists.

Then he said, quote, I even think that these people, if we find them in Burundi,

it is better to lead them to a stadium and stone them,

and that cannot a statement made to his predominantly Christian nation

perhaps drawing from a text like Leviticus 20 verse 13.

...