THE former Irish President Mary McAleese has called on Pope Francis to use his presence at the World Meeting of Families (WMF) to change the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality and include LGBT families at the meeting, which takes place in Dublin on 25 and 26 August (News, 10 August).

Mrs McAleese, whose son Justin is openly gay, received the inaugural Vanguard award of the GAZE LGBT film festival at the Lighthouse Cinema, in Dublin, this month, in recognition of her “unwavering support for the advancement of the LGBT+ community”.

At the festival, she described the WMF as a showcase event for orthodox RC doctrine which has had a particularly devastating affect on LGBT adults and young people. “It has made their lives, for some of them, actually intolerable,” she said.

She added that, as Pontiff, Pope Francis held responsibility for the doctrine and the damage that it caused. She expressed hope that the Irish meaning of “family” — gay or straight — would be highlighted at the WMF.