POPE FRANCIS has defended gay people against discrimination and said they should be integrated into society, but reaffirmed Church teaching that homosexual acts are a sin.
The comments, in an 80-minute conversation with journalists on a plane bringing him back from a week-long visit to Brazil, are among the most compassionate words from any pontiff on gay people.
During his comments he added that the Church's ban on female priests was definitive, although he would like women to have more leadership roles in administration and pastoral activities.
Defending gay people from discrimination, Pope Francis said: "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?"
However, he pointed to Catholic teaching which ruled that, while homosexual orientation is not sinful, homosexual acts are.
He said: "The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalised because of this (orientation) but that they must be integrated into society.
"The problem is not having this orientation. 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."
Francis was answering a question about reports of a gay lobby in the Vatican.
He joked: "You see a lot written about the gay lobby. I still have not seen anyone in the Vatican with an identity card saying they are gay."
Addressing the issue of women priests in the first time he has spoken on the subject, the pope 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. Pope John Paul said so with a formula that was definitive. That door is closed," he said, referring to a document by the late pontiff which said the ban was part of the infallible teaching of the Church.
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.
Pope Francis also said the troubled Vatican bank must become honest and transparent and that he will listen to the advice of a commission he has set up on whether it can be reformed or needs to be shut down altogether.
He said: "I don't know what will become of the bank. Some say it is better as a bank, others that it should be a charitable fund and others say close it."
The bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), is the target of several investigations by Italian magistrates on suspicion of money laundering.
Francis said: "Whatever the solution, it must have transparency and honesty. That's the way it must be."
Francis arrived back in Rome yesterday after a triumphant week-long tour of Brazil.
It ended with a huge gathering on Rio de Janeiro's famed Copacabana beach for a world Catholic youth festival which organisers estimated to have attracted more than three million people.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article