Los Angeles Times

By Tracy Wilkinson
July 29, 2013

RIO DE JANEIRO — His first overseas trip behind him, Pope Francis has made conciliatory remarks about the roles of gays and women in the Roman Catholic Church and allowed that the troubled Vatican bank may have to be shut down altogether.

In comments to reporters aboard the flight that on Monday returned him to Rome from Rio de Janeiro, the pope said that he opposed any type of lobby that might try to influence his decisions. He was responding to a question about the so-called gay lobby inside the Vatican that some officials have alleged exists as a cabal of gay priests who run the Holy See.

He said it was important to distinguish between a lobby, which he did not approve of, and priests or other Catholics who might be gay.

“If a person is gay, seeks God…