Pope Francis, in some of the most conciliatory words from any pontiff on gays, said on Sunday they should not be judged or marginalized and should be integrated into society, but he reaffirmed Church teaching that homosexual acts are a sin.
In a broad-ranging 80-minute conversation with journalists on the plane bringing him back from a week-long visit to Brazil, Francis also said the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on women priests was definitive, although he would like them to have more leadership roles in administration and pastoral activities.
Francis defended gays from discrimination but also referred to the Catholic Church’s universal Catechism, which says that while homosexual orientation is not sinful homosexual acts are.
“Everyone writes about the gay lobby, I still haven’t found anyone who gives me an identity card in the Vatican with gay written on it. They say that there are these people. I think when someone finds themselves with a person like this, they need to make a distinction between being a gay person and that of being part of a lobby. All lobbies are not good, that is the bad thing. If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?”
Francis was answering a question about reports of a “gay lobby” in the Vatican, after it suffered a string of scandals over pedophile priests and corruption in the administration of the Holy See.
Addressing the issue of women priests, the pope said,
“I see that we still haven’t made a profound theology of woman in the church. Only that they can do this or that, now she can be an altar girl, or she can make the reading or be president of a charity, but there is more but we need to make a profound theology on women, that is what I think.”
The Church teaches that it cannot ordain women because Jesus willingly chose only men as his apostles. Advocates of a female priesthood say he was acting according to the customs of his times.
Many in the Church, even those who oppose a female priesthood, say women should be given leadership roles in the Church and the Vatican administration.
“If she is an altar girl, president of charity works or teacher of catechism they need to be more, really much more even mystically more as I said with a new theology. In reference to the ordination of women the church has spoken and said no. John Paul II said this with a definite formula. This door is closed. But on this I want to say something. I have said it but I repeat it: the Madonna, Maria was more important than the apostles, bishops, deacons and priests. Women, in the church, are more important than bishops and priests, I think we are missing a theological explanation on this,” said Pope Francis.
The long session on the plane was highly unusual in the history of the modern papacy for both its candour and breadth.
Unlike his predecessor Benedict, who knew in advance the few questions journalists would allowed to ask, the 76-year-old Francis imposed no restrictions as he fielded 21 questions.
The pope arrived back in Rome on Monday after a triumphant week-long tour of Brazil which climaxed with a huge gathering on Rio de Janeiro’s famed Copacabana beach for a world Catholic youth festival, which organizers estimated to have attracted more than three million people.
