Pope Francis has stated gay people should not be marginalised but integrated into society.
Speaking to reporters on a flight back from Brazil, he reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's position that homos3xual acts were sinful, but homos3xual orientation was not:
"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?"
His remarks on gay people are being seen as much more conciliatory than his predecessor's position on the issue.
Pope Benedict XVI signed a document in 2005 that stated a name='more'> men with deep-rooted homos3xual tendencies should not be priests.
Pope Francis stated gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten.
On gay lobbying: " The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well," Pope Francis stated in a wide-ranging 80-minute long interview with Vatican journalists.
"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 stated.
"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."
I can only imagine what "the church" is turning into. Hmmm...God have mercy!