Pope Francis was asked about the June 12 Orlando massacre aboard the Papal plane on Sunday as it traveled from Rome to Armenia. The Pope “looked sad” according to Reuters, when asked about the massacre and whether he thought the Church should apologize to gay people for the way it has treated them.
He added: “I think that the Church not only should apologize … to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologize to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by (being forced to) work. It must apologize for having blessed so many weapons.”
The Church teaches that homosexual tendencies are not sinful but homosexual acts are, and that homosexuals should try to be chaste.
Francis repeated a slightly modified version of the now-famous “Who am I to judge?” comment he made about gays on the first foreign trip after his election in 2013.
“The questions is: if a person who has that condition, who has good will, and who looks for God, who are we to judge?”
By “condition”, Francis meant “a person in that situation” according to a Vatican spokesman, and did not mean anything mental or physical.
Francis added that “there are traditions in some countries, some cultures, that have a different mentality about this question (homosexuals)” and there are “some (gay) demonstrations that are too offensive for some”.
