‘If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?’ Pope Francis says.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/world/Who-am-I-to-judge-gay-people-Pope-Francis-20130729
Monday 29 July 2013 - 18:27
Pope Francis has returned from his first overseas trip since being elected in March.
As he returned from his first overseas trip since being elected Pope, Pope Francis said it was not for him to judge if a person was homosexual.
Speaking to reporters on a flight back from Brazil, he reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's position that homosexual acts were sinful, but homosexual orientation was not.
"If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" he asked.
The Pope was asked about long-standing claims that there is a powerful "gay lobby" within the Vatican.
In June, he himself acknowledged that such a lobby existed in the Curia, the Vatican's secretive administration.
The Pope said he wanted a greater role for women in the Church, but insisted they could not be priests.
He arrived back in Rome on Monday after a week-long tour of Brazil - his first trip abroad as pontiff - which climaxed with a huge gathering on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach for a world Catholic youth festival.
He also said gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten: "The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well,"
"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."
On the role of women in the Church, he said: "We cannot limit the role of women in the Church to altar girls or the president of a charity, there must be more.
"But with regards to the ordination of women, the Church has spoken and says no... that door is closed."
Monday 29 July 2013 - 18:27
Pope Francis has returned from his first overseas trip since being elected in March.
As he returned from his first overseas trip since being elected Pope, Pope Francis said it was not for him to judge if a person was homosexual.
Speaking to reporters on a flight back from Brazil, he reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's position that homosexual acts were sinful, but homosexual orientation was not.
"If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" he asked.
The Pope was asked about long-standing claims that there is a powerful "gay lobby" within the Vatican.
In June, he himself acknowledged that such a lobby existed in the Curia, the Vatican's secretive administration.
The Pope said he wanted a greater role for women in the Church, but insisted they could not be priests.
He arrived back in Rome on Monday after a week-long tour of Brazil - his first trip abroad as pontiff - which climaxed with a huge gathering on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach for a world Catholic youth festival.
He also said gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten: "The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well,"
"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."
On the role of women in the Church, he said: "We cannot limit the role of women in the Church to altar girls or the president of a charity, there must be more.
"But with regards to the ordination of women, the Church has spoken and says no... that door is closed."
Ma qal xejn ġdid. Is-soltu "Ħobb lil midneb u għobod id-dnub." U s-soltu astinenza. Żiblu bħal ta' qablu.
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