Pope: Gays deserve respect
He was on the plane returning from his trip to Armenia and during the flight back to Rome, sat to speak with reporters. He was asked a question that grew out of remarks from one of his top advisers in the days following the murder of 49 people (53 wounded) at an Orlando gay bar on June 12.
German Cardinal Karl Marx said at a recent conference in Dublin the Church owed an apology to gay people for having marginalized them for so long, in its teachings and deeds. Pope Francis readily agreed with his Cardinal’s remarks.
“I think the church must not only apologize…to a gay person it offended,” he told the reporters. “But we must apologize to the poor, to women who have been exploited, to children forced into labour, apologize for having blessed so many weapons.”
He added that gay people “should not be discriminated against” but instead they “should be respected” and said that the teachings of the Church are about respect and love, not about marginalizing gay people or any segment of society.
Pope Francis on contraception
It is not the first time the Pope has opened up on a flight returning home to Rome from a visit to another country. In February of this year he was on a plane returning from a trip to Mexico when he told reporters that women should be able to use contraception to avoid the Zika virus.
The 79-year-old pontiff said that the “lesser evil” between artificial contraception and the Zika virus was artificial contraception.
