Church should not marginalise gay Catholics, pope insists

Gay catholics should not be marginalised and should not be defined by their sexuality, Pope Francis says in a new book out this week.

"I prefer that homosexuals come to confession, that they stay close to the Lord, and that we all pray together," Francis said in an interview with veteran Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli that has been published in a new book out tomorrow (12 January).

"You can advise them to pray, show goodwill, show them the way and accompany them along it."

In “The Name of God is Mercy” Francis does not break new ground but he is candid in providing more details about his comment, "Who am I to judge" about a homosexual person seeking God and discussed the need he saw to invoke a jubilee Year of Mercy.

"I was paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalised," he told Tornielli.

"By welcoming a marginalised person whose body is wounded and by welcoming the sinner whose soul is wounded, we put our credibility as Christians on the line," he added.

"Caring for outcasts and sinners does not mean letting the wolves attack the flock" or jumping into the darkness with sinners, he said; it means being aware of the reality of sin and sharing the reality that God always is ready to forgive the sinner.

When the grace of God begins to help a person recognize his or her sin and need for forgiveness, the pope said, that person "needs to find an open door, not a closed one. He needs to find acceptance, not judgment, prejudice or condemnation. He needs to be helped, not pushed away or cast out."

"Jesus sends forth his disciples not as holders of power or masters of a law," the pope said. "The Christian message is transmitted by embracing those in difficulty, by embracing the outcast, the marginalised and the sinner."