Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, on Friday said that he'll continue to speak out against gays despite calls by Pope Francis for the Catholic Church to pay less attention to its rules on abortion, gay marriage and contraception.

“We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel,” Francis said.

(Related: Pope Francis says Catholic Church should welcome all, gays included.)

During an appearance on CNN's New Day, anchor Chris Cuomo pointed out Donohue's previous anti-gay remarks.

“You have bashed on these issues for years and years,” Cuomo said. “Most infamously, recently, saying that the church had a homosexual problem, not a pedophile problem. I mean really incendiary, flagrant, divisive stuff. … You're saying you won't do that anymore?”

“Oh no, I will always tell the truth ...”

“Well, that wasn't the truth.”

“If 81% of the victims are male and 100% of the victimizers are male, and if 87% of the victims are post-pubescent, the word in the English language is not pedophilia, it's called homosexuality,” Donohue insisted.

“You know very well, you cannot find a pedophile in any prison anywhere who will say that they're homosexuals. Never been about homosexuality, it's been about criminals and wrong acts. And this is your chance to say you won't do it anymore, the pope is asking to.”

“I will never stop telling the truth, and the pope never said we should either,” Donohue countered. “I'm against gay bashing. To say that because you're gay, you're going to be a molester ...”

“... That is exactly what it sounds like.”

“No, no. If most of the molesters are gay, that is true, it is not true that most gay priest are molesters. That is a gay bashing comment. People have to make critical distinctions.” (The video is embedded on this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)

(Related: Cardinal Timothy Dolan blames Catholic Church's obsession with gays on the media.)