Pope Francis reached out for the gay community on Monday, saying that he won't "judge" gay priests. His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, authored a document saying that men with homosexual orientations should not be priests. Francis softened as to the issue about the gay priests.
"If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" Pope Francis said on Monday. According to media reports, the pope would not judge the sexual orientation of priests. Pope Benedict XVI, the pope's predecessor who retired on February, once said that men with homosexual orientations must not be priests. Softening that position, Pope Francis said that gay clergymen should be forgiven.
In an unprecedented 80-minute news conference with reporters on his plane returning from a papal visit to Brazil for World Youth Day, he comments on the different issues concerning the Roman Catholic Church from the troubled Vatican bank to the role of women, abortion, homosexuality and his own personal security. The pope persuaded young people to build a better world and construct an inclusive "civilization of love."The Wall Street Journal stated that Pope Francis conferred the issue after a reporter asked about a report in an Italian magazine about the alleged gay sexual relationships of a Vatican monsignor named Battista Ricca years ago while living in Latin America.
Ricca has not commented on the report. Francis found the reports groundless after a preliminary Vatican investigation. He also said that he had nothing against the gay community and that their sins should be forgiven.
"The Gospel is for everyone, not just for some," Francis said while celebrating a Mass for more than 3 million Catholics in the Copacabana beach who greeted him like a rockstar. "Do not be afraid to go and to bring Christ into every area of life, to the fringes of society, even to those who seem farthest away."
The pope's mission is to show solidarity with the poor, to get priests out of their parishes and closer to the people, and to re-evangelize regions where Catholics have abandoned the church.
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