Pope says gays should not be marginalized: homosexual acts were sinful, but homosexual orientation was not.

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis has said gay people should not be marginalized but integrated into society, in some of the most conciliatory remarks by a pontiff on the issue of homosexuality.

In a broad-ranging 80-minute conversation with journalists on the plane bringing him back from a week-long visit to Brazil on Sunday night, he also said he could not judge gay priests, an emotive topic that divides Catholic opinion.

But the 76-year-old Argentine did reaffirm Church teaching that homosexual acts are a sin.

Francis stressed the Roman Catholic Church's ban on women priests was definitive, although he would like them to have more leadership roles in administration and pastoral activities.
And he expressed pain over scandals at the Vatican bank during a remarkably forthright press conference, his first since being elected in March to replace Benedict XVI.

His forthright tone and readiness to field so many questions underlined Francis' desire to do things differently. He has eschewed many trappings of the papacy, championed the poor and tackled some of the biggest scandals facing the Church head-on.

Francis said there were saints in the Holy See but also "those who are not very saintly".

The airborne encounter with journalists covered issues as varied as the pope's insistence on low-key security to his desire to unlock the shackles of the Vatican to go for walks.

View gallery."Pope Francis in Brazil
Pope Francis waves from his popemobile along the Copacabana beachfront on his way to celebrate Mass …
The pope arrived back in Rome on Monday after a triumphant tour of Brazil, which climaxed with a huge gathering on Rio de Janeiro's famed Copacabana beach for a Catholic youth festival that organizers said attracted more than 3 million people.

"WHO AM I TO JUDGE?"

In response to a question about reports of a "gay lobby" in the Vatican, after it suffered a string of scandals over pedophile priests and corruption in the administration of the Holy See, Francis said:

"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?

"The problem is not having this orientation. We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worst problem," he said.

"You see a lot written about the gay lobby. I still have not seen anyone in the Vatican with an identity card saying they are gay," he joked.

Francis defended all gays from discrimination but also referred to the Catholic Church's universal Catechism, which says that while homosexual orientation is not sinful, homosexual acts are.

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalized because of this (orientation) but that they must be integrated into society," he said, speaking in Italian and using the word "gay", instead of "homosexual" which previous pontiffs mainly used.

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