Pope Francis Says A ‘Family’ Can Only Be Between A Man And Woman

Over the weekend, Pope Francis once again underscored the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex couples parenting children.

IOL News reports that the Pope, speaking to the Forum delle Famiglie on Saturday, said only heterosexual families can form a family. He also hailed the "sanctity" of women who forgive cheating husbands.

"It is painful to say this today: People speak of varied families, of various kinds of family," but "the family [as] man and woman in the image of God is the only one," Francis said in unscripted remarks.

The Pope has a history of sending conflicting messages regarding his feelings about LGBTQ rights.

These new comments come just a month after the Pope seemed to comfort a gay victim of clerical sexual abuse saying God made him gay, and that both the Pope and God love him that way.

“He told me, ‘Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like this and loves you like this and I don’t care. The pope loves you like this. You have to be happy with who you are,’” Cruz, pictured above, told Spanish newspaper El País, according to The Guardian.

And yet, Pope Francis also told bishops in late May to keep an eye out for gay applicants for the priesthood. “If in doubt, better not let them enter," he was quoted as saying.

The Pope has appeared to be more liberal than his predecessors in the past regarding LGBTS, particularly in 2013, when asked about the existence of a “gay lobby” within the Vatican Pope Francis replied, “Who am I to judge?”

The Pontiff has also shown some support for civil unions for same-sex couples, while rejecting same-sex marriage.