July 29, 2013 – Pope Francis disembarks from the plane after landing from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at Ciampino’s military airport, on the outskirts of Rome. (AP)
ABOARD THE PAPAL AIRCRAFT (AP) – Pope Francis reached out to gays on Monday, saying he wouldn’t judge priests for their sexual orientation in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returned from his first foreign trip.
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis asked.
His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Francis was much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten.