Pope Francis Says He Won't Judge Gay Priests

Pope Francis on Monday said that he's not in a position to judge gay priests.

“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge? Francis rhetorically asked reporters aboard the papal aircraft on the journey back to the Vatican from his first foreign trip to Brazil.

Reporters raised allegations made by Italian news weekly L'Espresso that a trusted monsignor had a scandalous gay past.

He responded that his investigation found no evidence to back up the paper's claims.

(Related: Gay scandal rocks Vatican.)

The Holy Father added that gay people should not be marginalized.

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalized because of this [sexual orientation] but that they must be integrated into society,” the pope said.

“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 worse problem.”