As so often, I was the last to hear about the Pope’s views on gay relationships; it was my husband, who actually follows social media, who observed that Pope Francis has come out in favour of gay marriage.

As so often, I was the last to hear about the Pope’s views on gay relationships; it was my husband, who actually follows social media, who observed that Pope Francis has come out in favour of gay marriage. Not possible, I said. My daughter, 13, who is terrifically woke, was delighted. What the Pope actually said, of course, in Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary, Francesco, was:

“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”

So, he wasn’t expressing views on gay marriage, but you can see how people might get confused. And it is precisely that confusion which is a problem. The Pope is terrifically pastoral, warm and impulsive as a person. But as a Pope, he has to give at least some thought to the implications of what he is saying. A few years ago, when he was asked about Muslims responding to perceived offences against Islam with violence, he said warmly that if someone insults your mother, you give him a slap. At which the distinguished Catholic historian Jonathan Riley-Smith said to me in exasperation: “Can’t the Pope count to ten or something before he talks?”

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