Pope Francis says gay people should not be marginalised, but rather “integrated into society”. In a long conversation with journalists, the 76-year-old responded to reports of a "gay lobby" in the Vatican. "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?” Pope Francis said. "The problem is not having this orientation. 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 worst problem," he said. "You see a lot written about the gay lobby. I still have not seen anyone in the Vatican with an identity card saying they are gay," he joked. Francis defended all gays from discrimination but also referred to the Catholic Church's universal Catechism, which says that while being gay is not sinful, gay sex is. "The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalised because of this (orientation) but that they must be integrated into society," he said, speaking in Italian and using the word "gay", instead of "homosexual" which previous pontiffs mainly used. Analysts have told The Guardian Francis' remarks are significant because they mark the first time a pope had spoken so openly about the topic. Alessandro Di Antonio, an officer with the National Union of Gay Italians in Rome, has welcomed the comments. "It is such a great relief to hear a pope of all people talk about gay issues in a non-judgmental way like this," Di Antonio said. "I wish all Catholics would follow this lead."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 30th July 2013 - 9:37am