With Same-Sex Blessings, Pope Sets Example for Religious Leaders

The statement also gave me a window into how others might see my own negotiations with tradition as a faith leader. As a guide to many LGBTQ Jews, I understood the need of LGBTQ Catholics to bring holiness to this central relationship in their lives. I also could grasp how Catholics, like Jews, place a premium on commitment to tradition and religious authority, concepts that seem to have fallen out of fashion today. For people making these kinds of decisions, it takes wisdom to be sure when we're making changes out of fidelity to Divine revelation and when we might be assimilating to accommodate the pressures of the world. With the Catholic and Jewish communities both cherishing the dismissed values of sanctity and continuity, I don't fault those who, in good faith, are cautious to change. At the same time, I think we have to commend this small but important move by the pope. Just as religious leaders must uphold tradition so that we can be guided by wisdom that lasts for all time, clergy cannot kowtow to political pressure and feigned piety from those who profess religious conviction but are actually interested in keeping others down.