ROME – In a wide-ranging conversation with Jesuits in Portugal during his visit to Lisbon earlier this month for World Youth Day, Pope Francis touched on several hot-button topics, including the need for the Church to be more flexible when it comes to homosexuals and so-called “sins of the flesh”. He also discussed criticism of his papacy among US Catholics and problems of chastity among clergy.
In a private August 5 meeting with Jesuits during his visit to Portugal, Francis spoke to the roughly 130 Jesuits and answered several questions, including one from a Jesuit named Francisco who said he had spent a year on sabbatical in the United States and was troubled by the number of people, including bishops, who were critical of Francis’s papacy.
