All of the confusion resulting from what the Holy Father said in the press conference on the return flight from Brazil regarding a possible "gay" lobby in the Vatican comes from his use of the inadequate term "gay."
No priest should use the term "gay" or the term "homosexual" to categorize individual persons with same sex attraction because these terms are too vague and discriminatory. "Gay" is vague because it can refer to anyone with same sex attraction at any level, even those who have never had the least temptation to act on the inclination or merely have some effeminate manner or other. The Holy Father said that it is not his place to judge a tendency. That's what he said. Because he used the term "gay": "people who are like that ['gay']", and spoke of "'gay' persons", the vagueness of his language left the statement open for the world to interpret that those (clerics and others) who are actively and obstinately bent on sodomy cannot be judged, even by the Pope. That is not what he said and certainly not what he meant because that would be contrary to the Gospel, which the Church and the Pope cannot contradict.
Here is my translation of that question and answer which was asked by the Brazilian journalist of The Guardian, longtime expert on the Vatican, Ilze Scamparini.
Ilze Scamparini:
I request permission to ask a somewhat delicate question: another image which has made world news is that of Monsignor Ricca and the news of his intimacies. Your Holiness, I would like to know what do you intend to do on this matter? How are you to face this situation and how is Your Holiness intending to face the matter of the gay lobby.
Pope Francis:
The matter of Monsignor Ricca: I did that which the Code of Canon Law requires which is the investigatio previa. And from this investigatio there is nothing of which they accuse him, we have found nothing of that. That is my response.
But I would like to add something else on this: I see that often in the Church, and aside from this case, and even in this case, they go to look for "the sins of your youth", for example, and that's published. Not crimes, you see? Crimes are another matter: the abuse of minors is a crime. No, sins. But if a person, be he lay, priest, or nun has committed a sin and later converts, the Lord forgives, the Lord forgets and this is important for our lives. When we go to confession and truly say: "I have sinned in this", the Lord forgets and we have no right not to forget, because we run the risk of the Lord not forgetting ours. That's a danger. This is important: a theology of sin.
I often think of Saint Peter: he committed one of the worst sins which is to deny Christ, and he was made Pope with that sin. We should reflect greatly.
But returning more concretely to your question: in this case, I made the investigatio previa and we found nothing. That was the first question.
Then, you spoke of the gay lobby. Woe! Much is being written about the gay lobby. I have not yet encountered anyone who shows me their Vatican gay card. They say that they are around. I think that when you find a person like that you should distinguish between the fact of being a gay person from the fact of forming a lobby because no lobbies are good. That's bad [cf. #8-9 of CDF document].
If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him. The Catechism of the Catholic Church [2357-2359] explains this very beautifully, for it says -- wait a minute, how does it say?... it says: "these people should not be marginalized for this, they should be integrated in society". The problem is not with having the tendency, no, we should be fraternal, because this is one, but if there is another, there is something else. The problem is making a lobby out of this tendency: a lobby of the greedy, a lobby of politicians, a masonic lobby, so many lobbies! For me, this is the graver problem. And I thank you so much for asking this question.
Thank you so much!
N.B. In Light of the World Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the problem of homosexuality and the clergy.