Pope Francis: Gay Children ‘Have the Right to a Family, and the Family Not Throwing Them Out’

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Pope Francis: Gay Children ‘Have the Right to a Family, and the Family Not Throwing Them Out’

Speaking in Ireland on Sunday following a Catholic family rally, Pope Francis responded to a question from reporters about how a parent should respond if their child comes out as gay.

Said the Pope, according to the AP: “There have always been gay people and people with homosexual tendencies…Don’t condemn. Dialogue. Understand, give the child space so he or she can express themselves…Ignoring child with this tendency shows a lack of motherhood and fatherhood….This child has the right to a family. And the family not throwing him out.”

The Pope is visiting Ireland on the first papal visit there since 1979, and the country now has a gay prime minister, Leo Varadkar.

The Washington Post reports: ‘In an interview with RTE news Friday, Varadkar said he hoped to talk to the pope about issues including clerical sex abuse and the exclusion of the LGBT community from the church. Varadkar had a brief meeting with the pope following his more public remarks Saturday. His spokesman told the Irish Times that he “said to the pope that there are huge numbers of people here who have faith in their heart but who feel excluded and alienated from the church because of what happened.”240

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