Cardinal Timothy Dolan has minimized Pope Francis' support for 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.
But when asked his position on gay marriage, Francis drew a clear
line in the sand: “You know perfectly the position of the church.”
Gay groups called the remark a change in tone for the church.
(Related: Christine
Quinn, gay groups praise Pope Francis supporting gay priests.)
But appearing Tuesday on CBS This Morning, Dolan, also the
archbishop of New York, downplayed the comments, emphasizing that the
church still considered “homosexual acts” a sin.
“Homosexuality is not a sin, right? Homosexual acts are,”
Dolan said. “Just like heterosexuality is not a sin outside of
marriage, that would be sinful.”
“While certain acts may be wrong, [Pope Francis] would always
love and respect the person and treat the person with dignity and not
judge them.”
Dolan, who was among the Cardinals vying to replace outgoing Pope
Benedict XVI, vocally opposed passage of New York's gay marriage law,
calling
it “Orwellian social engineering.”