Pope says he knows what non-binary means, welcomes LGBT people to church: ‘All persons are children of God’

‘God does not reject anybody, God is a father. And I have no right to expel anyone from church’

Pope Francis waves as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, 5 April 2023 (Associated Press)

Pope Francis said in a documentary that he was aware of what non-binary meant and welcomed people from the LGBT+ community to the church.

In the documentary titled “The Pope Answers”, which was released on Wednesday, he can be seen praising sex too. He said that it is “one of the beautiful things that God has given to the human person”.

The documentary was produced by Disney and captures the Pontiff in a meeting with at least 10 people in their early twenties. This meeting took place sometime last year.

He gets asked many questions including on LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, the porn industry and sex besides others.

“Sex is one of the beautiful things that God has given to the human person. To express yourself sexually is a richness. So anything that detracts from real sexual expression lessens you and depletes this richness.”

He was quizzed about his knowledge of non-binary people. He says that he knows what it is and that everyone – including the LGBT community – is welcome by the Catholic Church.

“All persons are the children of God, all persons. God does not reject anybody, God is a father. And I have no right to expel anyone from the Church.”

In 2020, Pope Francis also called for the recognition of civil union laws that would provide legal protection for same-sex couples.

He had said at the time that gay and lesbian people are “children of God and have a right to a family” and that “nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it”.

He made those remarks in a documentary, titled “Francesco”.

In the past too, the Vatican has publicly opposed violence and discrimination against LGBT people, including the criminalisation of same-sex.

However, in 2019 the Vatican released a document in which it reiterated that acceptance of flexible ideas of gender posed a threat to traditional families and ignored the natural differences between men and women.

It lamented “calls for public recognition of the right to choose one’s gender, and of a plurality of new types of unions, in direct contradiction of the model of marriage as being between one man and one woman, which is portrayed as a vestige of patriarchal societies”.

It stated that the idea of gender moving along a spectrum was “nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants”.

Meanwhile, in the new documentary, the group of young people also ask the Pope about abortion rights. He can be heard saying that priests should be “merciful” towards women who have terminated a pregnancy but said the practice remains unacceptable.

“It is good to call things by their name. It is one thing to accompany the person who had one (abortion), quite another to justify the act.”

In January this year, the Pople called on Catholic bishops to welcome LBGTQ+ people into the church, referring to laws criminalising homosexuality as “unjust”.

“Being homosexual is not a crime,” he told the Associated Press in an interview. “It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin.”

“Fine, but first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime.

“It’s also a sin to lack charity with one another,” he added.