Pope Francis has offered a softer approach towards the discussion of homosexuality, a significant change in position from his predecessors.

Returning from his recent trip to World Youth Day in Brazil the pontiff took questions from reporters in an unusual 80 minute discussion with reporters on his plane. His predecessor Pope Benedict XVI only ever took a select handful of questions from the press which we always carefully vetted.

Pope Benedict had described homosexuals as “a threat to the future of the human  race” and had called on Catholics  to fight for the traditional family. The former Pope described gay marriage and abortion as “insidious and dangerous threats to the common good”.

Yesterday Pope Francis offered a much softer position. When asked asked about gay priests he responded,

“If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?”

“The problem is not having this orientation, it is lobbying. That’s the most serious problem I think.”

The Pope said gay and lesbian people should be, “treated with respect, compassion and sensitivity, without discrimination,”

In June the Pope is reported to have admitted that there was a gay lobby inside the Roman Curia, the secretive administrative arm of the Vatican.

The leader of the church also didn’t shy away from suggestions that Battista Ricca, who the pontiff recently appointed to a key position at the troubled Vatican Bank was gay and had a troubled past. The Pope said a brief investigation had been carried out but had found nothing of concern.

Pope Francis also suggested their was a greater role for women to play inside the church, while acknowledging that when it came to female priests the door would remain closed.

OIP Staff, Image: Government of Argentina