TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Responding to reporters asking him to comment on gay people on a trip back to Rome after his first foreign trip to Brazil, Pope Francis said that gays should not be marginalized but integrated into society.
"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge them?" he said, as quoted by BBC, Monday, July 29, 2013. He affirmed that homosexual acts were sinful, but homosexual orientation was not. His statement was to answer whether there was a "gay lobby" in Vatican.
His remark on the gay people is seen as more wise and much less judgmental than his predecessors'.
During his time as Pope, Pope Benedict XVI signed a document in 2005 saying men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not become priests.
Offering a refreshing tone, Pope Francis expressed that gay priests should be forgiven and their sins forgotten, adding that they also have the right to become priests.
BBC | ANINGTIAS JATMIKA
