Pope remarks came following the General Audience where he had a brief meeting with members for an Italian group Tenda di Gionata (Jonathan’s Tent), which supports the parents of LGBT children.
According to reports of the encounter, Francis said “God loves your children as they are.” He also said: “The Pope loves your children as they are, because they are children of God.”
Mara Grassi, the vice-president of the support group, relayed details of what the Pope said following the audience, and that she had presented Francis with a book Genitori Fortunati (Blessed Parents). A copy of the book will soon be available in English. Speaking to Avvenire, the news-paper owned by the Italian Bishops’ Conference, she said: “I explained [to the Pope] that we consider ourselves lucky because we have been forced to change the way we have always looked at our children.
She added: “What we now have is a new gaze that has allowed us to see the beauty and love of God in them. We want to create a bridge with the Church… so that the Church too can change its gaze towards our children, no longer excluding them but welcoming them fully.”
Francis’ remarks are consistent with what he said in 2018 to Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of clerical sexual abuse and who at that time had spent several days with the Pope. “He told me, ‘Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like this and loves you like this and I don’t care. The Pope loves you like this. You have to be happy with who you are’,” Cruz recalled.
Since the beginning of his pontificate, Francis has sought to model an inclusive, pastoral approach to LGBT Catholics. It marks a shift away from the harsh and condemnatory language used by the Vatican in the past.