[ 2013-07-29 ]

Pope Francis: Who am I to judge gay people?
The Pope's position on gay people appears to
contrast with that of his predecessors

Pope Francis has said gay people should not be
judged or marginalised.

Speaking to reporters on a flight back from
Brazil, he said: "If a person is gay and seeks God
and has good will, who am I to judge him?"

The Pope's remarks are being seen as much more
conciliatory than his predecessor's position on
the issue.

Turning to the issue of women priests, he said the
Church had spoken and had said "no", but the role
of women should not be restricted.

"We cannot limit the role of women in the Church
to altar girls or the president of a charity,
there must be more," he said in a wide-ranging
interview with Vatican journalists.

Five months after he took over from Pope Benedict,
he said gay people should be fully accepted in
society.

""The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains
this very well," Pope Francis said.

"It says they should not be marginalised because
of this but that they must be integrated into
society."

But he condemned what he described as lobbying by
gay people.

"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."

Sam, I do not see any change in the position of
the Catholic Church. Basically the Pope is not
against gay people and I think every body does but
as the Pope says it is not the function of
governments to lobby for gay rights.

Source - BBC

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