Pope Francis is reaching out to gays, saying he won't judge priests for their sexual orientation, in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returns from his first foreign trip. According to AP, Francis says: "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?"
 
His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, authored a document that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Francis is being much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten.


His remarks came Monday during a plane journey back to the Vatican from his first foreign trip in Brazil.