"The problem is not having this orientation," he said. "We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem."Is that a translation? If so, how did the translator get to "lobbies"? I presume what he was saying is something very similar to what conservatives in the United States say, that we're all individuals and all human, and we shouldn't have special interest groups pushing us around making special demands, seeking special privileges. Note how his list of lobbies progressed, not from gay people to race and gender, but on to "greedy people" (economic interest groups?) and the generic "political." Then before the totally generic "so many lobbies," he inserted the Masons.
3 observations:
1. What is the depth of the Pope's conciliatory tone toward gay people? Is it more than a display of love toward the human beings who feel urges that he will still teach should be resisted?
2. Are the Masons up to anything these days that is seriously troubling the Pope? (I see that last October, when Benedict was still Pope and his former butler was on trial for stealing "highly sensitive papers the pontiff had marked 'to be destroyed,'" there were headlines like "Trial reveals papal butler's interest in Masonry, Church scandals.")
3. Did Francis say "lobbies" and is he being lobbied? The meaning of "lobby" he's using is (from the unlinkable OED): "In extended use: a sectional interest..., a business, cause, or principle supported by a group of people; the group of persons supporting such an interest." Examples of this usage, going back to 1952, are all in British writings, and I think it sounds odd to Americans, who think of "lobby" more in terms of groups organized for the purpose of affecting legislation. The term goes back to the 17th century, when there was a specific entrance-hall — literally, a lobby — in the House of Commons, where people could interact with legislators. The OED marks the word "lobbyist" as "Chiefly U.S."
The Pope referred to the "gay lobby" last month. Here's a NYT article from June 12th:
For years, perhaps even centuries, it has been an open secret in Rome: That some prelates in the Vatican hierarchy are gay. But the whispers were amplified this week when Pope Francis himself, in a private audience, appears to have acknowledged what he called a “gay lobby” operating inside the Vatican, vying for power and influence.
The remarks — which the Vatican spokesman did not deny and the participants at the private audience confirmed — appeared to be part of an effort by the pope to take on the entrenched interests in the Vatican that many believe were a factor in why the previous pope, Benedict XVI, resigned unexpectedly....
“In the Curia, there are also holy people, really, there are holy people. But there also is a stream of corruption, there is that as well, it is true,” [Pope Francis] said in Spanish... “The ‘gay lobby’ is mentioned, and it is true, it is there ... We need to see what we can do,” Francis continued....
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