Today aboard the papal plane, Pope Francis said that he will not "judge" gays and lesbians, including gay priests, a groundbreaking statement from the Vatican and its historical approach to the treatment of marginalized groups, CNN reports.
"If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" Pope Francis said when answering a question about the "gay lobby" at the Vatican during a flight back to Rome from Brazil, where he had spent the past week at the international Catholic event, World Youth Day.
"I'm happy. It has been a beautiful trip, spiritually speaking; it has been good to me. I'm tired enough but with a heart full of joy," he said, adding, "There's a lot of talk about the gay lobby, but I've never seen it on the Vatican ID card!"
The "gay lobby" is the idea that the Holy See contains a network of gay clergy. A series of "Vatileaks" reports on the alleged lobby scandalously factored into Pope Emeritus Benedict XIV's decision to resign last year.
"When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby," said Francis. "They shouldn't be marginalized. The tendency (to homosexuality) is not the problem...they're our brothers."
Pope Francis's statement signals a shift in the views of the Catholic church towards homosexuality, one of the many hot-button issues that have been a source of controversy for the church for decades. In addition to homosexuality, the Pope also addressed the role of women, abortion, and his personal security, though it was his comments regarding homosexuality that created the most buzz in the media, and other Catholics seem to be reveling in his latest message.
"Pope Francis's brief comment on gays reveals great mercy," Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor at America, a Catholic magazine based in New York, told CNN. "Today Pope Francis has, once again, lived out the Gospel message of compassion for everyone."
Martin added that Pope Francis also showed compassion towards divorced and remarried Catholics, a group that "has long felt marginalized in the church, and called for a 'deeper theology' on the role of women in the church."
As for ordaining women, however, the Pope brushed the possibility aside: "The church says no. That door is closed."
On the subject of abortion, the Pope declined to comment, but as for of the topic of the Vatican bank, he stated: "Some say that it would be better if it were a bank, others say that it should be a foundation. Other say to shut it down. These are the suggestions going around. I don't know. I trust the commission's members that are working on the IOR. But I wouldn't be able to tell you how this story is going to end."
