Since everything else they’ve “quoted” the Pope as saying meant nothing near what the thought the Pope meant by what he said, I’m not putting much stock in this.
Yes, it’s nonsense. The Pope says he understands the thought process behind these laws, but that he does not accept the premise.
Why would the Catholic Church want to go the way of the Anglicans? From a purely marketing point of view, the Catolic chuches base is not going to want to accept homosexuality as church a value and many will leave.