As a millennial Catholic, I feel I have to constantly defend my "radical" beliefs. I find myself increasingly butting heads with my family and people from the conservative town I come from. However, I feel that we as Christians have the right to practice our faith and interpret Jesus’ teachings how we see them, within reason. Since Pope Francis has come into power, I find myself feeling more and more hopeful for the future of the Church and Christians everywhere.

Catholics and Christians across the world are condemning the Pope for his supposed words where he told a homosexual sexual abuse victim that God “made him that way.” However, maybe if we focus more on the concept of what he said, we could all become better Christians. The heart of what Pope Francis is saying is to love all of our brothers and sisters in Christ as God Himself does. God made every single one of us by hand.

In fact, Pope Francis would be contradicting no Church teachings by saying that. He is not saying he accepts and promotes the gay lifestyle, which would be contradictory. He is not saying that he accepts gay marriage and is changing current Church policy on it, which would be contradictory. He is simply saying that this man deserves the Pope’s, and everyone else’s (including the Big Man Himself, God), Christian love as much as the most straight, devout clergy member on his Cabinet.

Furthermore, none of us humans has the right to say whether or not God did create gay people "that way." For all we know, God did create homosexuality as just another temptation in this world. If you analyze the heterosexual community, they are not supposed to have sex before marriage or lust, but many do that anyway. As a whole, people, regardless of sexual orientation are not supposed to swear, cheat or drink in excess.

Although all of this is a secondhand quote and has not been confirmed by the Vatican, I believe there is still an important lesson to be learned. A staple principle of the Christian/Catholic faith is "Love the sinner, hate the sin." Regardless of how much one supports or does not support the gay, or even LGBT+, lifestyle, every human on this planet is still a creature of God regardless of if you agree with their choices in life.

Until you are without sin and have been for all of eternity, you do NOT get to judge your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I believe what Pope Francis was trying to get at is that he does not care if that man is gay or not because he is still the Pope’s brother in Christ. To a man as compassionate, selfless and understanding as our own Pope, his main concern is loving others as Jesus would and doing whatever he can to draw others closer to Christ.

Next time, take a second to look inside at yourself and your sins before you try to demean someone else for theirs.

“You hypocrite! First, remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.” — Matthew 7:5