Pope Francis Recommends Psychiatric Help for Children with Gay Tendencies

On August 25, Pope Francis arrived in Ireland at a time the Catholic Church has ongoing pedophilia and sexual abuses cases. When Pope John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979, divorce, contraception, abortion and gay-marriage were forbidden in Ireland. Regarding the evolutions since then, Ireland has changed, the Pope noted.

However, the key moment of the visit occurred on his plane as he was headed back to Rome. A journalist asked Pope Francis what the best answer is for parents whose children show homosexual tendencies.

Pope Francis answered that for him, two types of homosexuality exist: "Sexual orientation revealed once adult, and the other one emerging during childhood."

He urged parents not to respond with "silence" because "ignoring a son or daughter who has homosexual tendencies is an error of fatherhood or motherhood," and went on to suggest that whenthe tendency "shows itself in childhood, there is a lot that can be done through psychiatry, to see how things are. It is something else if it shows itself after 20 years."

By Antoine Dewaest

Photo: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images