On his flight from Brazil to Rome on Monday, Pope Francis made open-minded remarks about homosexuality in the church in opposition to the opinion of his predecessor.

When asked about the rumored gay lobby, which some officials have said is a faction of priests who run the Holy See, he responded that he opposes lobbies that would attempt to influence his decisions, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Pope emphasized the difference between a possible gay lobby and gay priests or Catholics.

“If a person is gay, seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis said. “They should not be marginalized.”

He made it clear that he disapproves of “lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies.” He said, according to Voice of America, “This is the worse problem.”

Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, formally banned all men with “deep-seated tendencies” towards homosexuality from joining the priesthood.

However, the Pope said “the door is closed” on the possibility of women being priests, though he believes women should not be “limited to being altar girls” and should be given more significant administrative roles in the Church.

Image: WikiCommons