Pope Francis urges parents to support gay children

Francis listed difficulties parents face including discovering ‘different sexual orientations in their children’.

Pope Francis speaks to newlyweds during the weekly general general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

The Pope has again urged tolerance towards LGBT people, telling parents who are worried because their children are gay to support rather than condemn them.

Speaking off the cuff during his weekly audience at the Vatican, the Pope listed difficulties that parents face during child-rearing, including discovering “different sexual orientations in their children”.

He added that parents needed to work out “how to handle this, how to accompany their children, and not hide behind an attitude of condemnation”.

The Pope’s comments, which will delight his liberal fans but may anger conservative foes, were the latest in a series of remarks about homosexuality dating back to 2013 when the Pope responded: “Who am I to judge?” when asked about gay priests. In an interview in 2020 he said: “Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family … they’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it.”

Church catechism states that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered”, but in 2018 the Pope told a gay man: “God made you that way and loves you as you are.”

The Pope has stuck to the church’s message that marriage should take place only between a man and a woman, but has backed civil unions for gay people, in contrast to his predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict. “What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. I stood up for that,” the Pope said in 2020.

The Times