Pope Francis reportedly held a private
meeting with parents of LGBT children.
According to Jesuit weekly America
Magazine, Francis told the parents that “God loves your
children as they are” and that there is a place for them in the
church.
“The church loves your children as
they are because they are children of God,” the pontiff reportedly
told the parents.
Francis was speaking to about 40
members of “Tenda di Glonata” (“Jonathan's Tent”), an Italian
group of Christian parents with children who identify as LGBT.
The parents briefly met with Francis in
the courtyard of San Damaso at the Vatican. They gave him a
rainbow-colored t-shirt that read, “In love there is no fear.”
The group's vice president, Mara
Grassi, reportedly told the pope: “We wish to create a bridge to
the church so that the church too can change its way of looking at
our children, no longer excluding them but fully welcoming them.”
Grassi said that after learning that
her son was gay she felt “like a blind person” because she
thought her son would be excluded from the church. “Nobody helped
me,” she said.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that
gay sex is a sin.