“Laws criminalizing LGBT people are a ‘sin’ and an injustice”- Pope Francis

Pope Francis said on Sunday that laws criminalizing LGBT people are a sin and an injustice because God loves and accompanies people with same-sex attraction, Reuters agency reported.

Pope Francis, who made his remarks in response to a reporter’s question aboard the plane returning from a two-country trip to Africa, received full backing of his comments from two other Christian leaders on the plane with him.

“The criminalisation of homosexuality is a problem that cannot be ignored,” said Francis, who then cited unnamed statistics according to which 50 countries criminalise LGBT people “in one way or another” and about 10 others have laws including the death penalty for them.

“This is not right. Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God loves them. God accompanies them … condemning a person like this is a sin. Criminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice,” Francis said.