Rumbles of Change in the Vatican: Pope Signals Openness to Gay Priests

Continued from previous page

The pope said he had ordered an investigation into the claims and had found nothing to back them up. Moreover, he chided journalists for covering such stories, saying there was a world of difference between allegations of that kind – which he said concerned "sin" that could be forgiven and forgotten by God – and crimes, such as the sexual abuse of children.

On the long-troubled Vatican bank, Francis spoke of several possibilities for its reform, and did not rule out its eventual closure, saying that it needed to become "honest and transparent".

Asked whether he had met with resistance from within the Roman curia – the Vatican's sprawling central bureaucracy – to that and other reforms, he said: "There are many people [in the Vatican] who are saints but there are those who are not very saintly … and it pains me when this happens."

Pressed on whether, by that, he meant he had come up against open opposition to his ideas, he replied: "If there is resistance I have not seen it yet."

When the 80 minutes were up, and all subjects from the papal sciatic nerve to the vindication of his free-wheeling low-security preferences had been exhausted, the pope went back to his seat for the remaining hours of the transatlantic flight.

For the reporters on board, Allen said, the spectacle could not have been more different from the "very carefully stage-managed affairs" under Benedict XVI, in which a handful of questions were usually screened and the sessions restricted to brief encounters.

On this occasion, reporters had been told that there would be "ample space" for questions with the pope. But, as Allen remarked, "in Vatican speak, if someone says the pope is going to give you an 'ample' period of time you normally think that means 15 minutes". What they got, instead, was a wide-ranging discussion that touched on some of the most controversial issues in the church today.

"I don't know that we've learned anything new at the level of content," said Allen, after the plane landed in Rome. "I think what we learned first of all is that this pope is capable of dealing with the press and doing so remarkable effectively … and the other thing is that he is determined to set the most positive tone possible, to try to put a positive face on church teachings, including those teachings that some people find harsh."

What Francis said …

• On gay people: "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?"

• On women: "We must go further in the explicitness of the role and charism of women living in the church."

• On the need for bodyguards: "I'd like to walk in the streets. But I know it's impossible."

• On the black bag he took on the plane: "The keys to the atomic bomb weren't in it." (Apparently it held his razor and books)

• On his advisers: "I like it when someone tells me: 'I don't agree.' This is a true collaborator. When they say 'Oh, how great, how great, how great,' that's not useful."

• On his predecessor: "The last time there were two or three popes, they didn't talk among themselves and they fought over who was the true pope!" Having Benedict living in the Vatican "is like having a grandfather – a wise grandfather living at home".