“GOD MADE YOU like this. God loves you like this. The Pope loves you like this and you should love yourself and not worry about what people say.”

These are the words attributed to Pope Francis during his discussions with Juan Carlos Cruz, a clerical sexual abuse survivor who also happens to be gay. Those remarks – which the Vatican has neither confirmed nor denied – are likely to go down as another landmark moment in Francis’ pastoral conversion of the papacy, and his shifting of the conversation when it comes to the Church’s approach to gay Catholics.

It goes beyond saying of gay people: “Who am I to judge?”, as he did early on in his papacy, to: “You are loved by God.”