Asked about all this by a reporter, Francis wryly replied that he hadn’t found anyone with “an identity card in the Vatican with ‘gay’ on it.” He then added, in what would become one of the best-known lines of his papacy: “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge?” Some in the gay community were disappointed with a 2021 Vatican statement that confirmed a ban on religious blessings of same-sex unions, calling such relationships not “even remotely analogous...

As a gay man who was raised Catholic (and has the therapy bills to prove it), it was Francis’ response to one particularly pointed question in 2013 that floored me. On a flight back from his first official papal trip, he was asked about gay Catholic clergy members by journalists. This might seem like a contradiction, but I was stunned to hear something so loving and Christ-like about gay people coming from the pope. Like many queers, my experience with Catholic leadership had not been positive. For all my love...

For Palestinian Christians at a church in Gaza, Pope Francis' death is a special loss GAZA CITY — For most people around the world, Pope Francis was a religious leader seen on video or read about in the news. For the congregation of a tiny Roman Catholic church in Gaza, he was the voice on the other end of the phone every night, calling to check on them in wartime. "He used to call us at 7 p.m. every night. No matter how busy he was, no matter where he...

But first, here’s what else is going on: Good morning. Today we’re explaining the mixed legacy Pope Francis leaves behind on the church’s problem of sexual abuse by clergy. Send questions or suggestions to the Starting Point team at [email protected]. If you’d like the newsletter sent to your inbox, sign up here. Pope Francis, who died yesterday at 88, never visited Boston. But he was a presence in the city throughout his 12-year papacy in part because of how he approached the problem of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy —...

A timeline of Pope Francis' health issues from hospitalization to his final appearance Pope Francis waves to the crowd from the main balcony of St. Peter's basilica during the Urbi et Orbi message and blessing to the city and the world as part of Easter celebrations, at St Peter's square in the Vatican, April 20, 2025. Pope Francis waves to the crowd from the main balcony of St. Peter's basilica during the Urbi et Orbi message and blessing to the city and the world as part of Easter celebrations, at...

Martin Scorsese has honored the late Pope Francis with a touching tribute following the news of his death at 88 years old. The legendary director is a regular at the Vatican and had met with the pope several times over the course of his career, building a rapport over their mutual appreciation for art. “There is so much that can be said about the significance of Pope Francis and everything he meant to the world, to the church, to the papacy. I will leave that to others,” Scorsese said in...