Just last year, in the documentary Francesco, he endorsed providing gay couples with legal protections in civil same-sex unions in a video clip extracted from an interview for a Mexican television station. He once told abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz that, “It doesn’t matter that you are gay. God made you that way and he loves you the way you are, and it doesn’t matter to me,” in a private meeting in the Vatican. He responded to an Italian gay couple to allow their three children to join the catechetical program and minister as altar servers without fear of discrimination. And, during a press conference on his return flight from Rio de Janeiro, he famously remarked: “If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person?” Despite adhering to the traditional teaching of the Church on marriage, no doubt the Pope has opened the doors of the Church with mercy, love, and understanding to the LGBTQ+ community.
