Just as the new pope has eased tensions with atheists, a growing group fresh for the church to contend with, so has Pope Francis eased the attitude and stance the Church holds towards homosexuals, without altering any of the hard policies the church has consistently upheld against gay practices.
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis asked, when returning from his first overseas trip since being elected in March, as reported by the Telegraph. That is to say, he will not judge somebody who has gay inclinations, but the homosexuals acts are still sins, as per the Catholic Church’s universal catechism, which claims being merely homosexually-oriented is not sinful. When asked about the church’s policy towards gay marriage, and contraceptives, he upheld the Church’s policy, just as he meant nothing about a policy change when he said women should be given a bigger role in the Catholic Church, considering ordination not even an issue, since “the door is closed.”
So it seems the Francis difference is in softening the edges on policies that keep women out of ordination, and which do not recognize gay marriage as allowed by God, yet wanting women to play a bigger role in the church and gay men (who don’t act out their desires) to be not judged by himself or others.
The only criticism he was willing to make of homosexuality in the interviews was in fact directed at a powerful “gay lobby” working in the Curia, the Vatican’s secretive administration, but he denounced this group, while admitting it existed, not on terms of their orientation but on the machination.
“The problem is not having this orientation. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worst problem.”