NBC News

By Anne Thompson and Henry Austin

Pope Francis said “who am I to judge?” gay people as he discussed one of the most divisive issues affecting the Catholic Church Monday.

“I have yet to find anyone who has a business card that says he is gay,” the pontiff said at a press conference on his plane while returning from Brazil, where he talked about a number of subjects.

“They say they exist. If someone is gay, who searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?” he added.

The official position of the Catholic Church on the issue is that while homosexual desires or attractions are not in themselves sinful, the physical acts are.

Francis discussed a range of issues during the press conference, admitting that the church had not done enough to develop “the theology of women in the church.”