He was most assuredly NOT saying that homosexuality is wrong, but that we love the homosexual and hopes he will repent. At some point, you need to deal with what he said:
“We need to proclaim the Gospel on every street corner, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing, even with our preaching, every kind of disease and wound. In Buenos Aires I used to receive letters from homosexual persons who are ‘socially wounded’ because they tell me that they feel like the church has always condemned them. But the church does not want to do this. During the return flight from Rio de Janeiro I said that if a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge. By saying this, I said what the catechism says. Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.
“A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human being. In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation. It is necessary to accompany them with mercy. When that happens, the Holy Spirit inspires the priest to say the right thing.”
If you see where he is saying homosexuality is sin that needs repentance, I’d like to know what phrase it is. Because what I see, and what the homosexuals are having orgasms over and what the media that hates Christ is doing back-flips over is his REFUSAL to say homosexuality is sinful.
He’s the ‘no judgment’ Pope, but if there is no judgement, then there was nothing for Jesus to save us from. He’s preaching the part of the Gospel people like - God loves you - while cutting out the part they dislike - that God hates sin, and will judge you if you do not repent.
In the exerpt you posted, the pope is speaking about God's mercy and the pastoral care of homosexuals. Some homosexuals are reprobate, and beyond hope. But some are broken sinners, seeking a way out of the darkness that surrounds them. In that sense, his words are reasonable.
Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human being. In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation. It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.
In the first sentence you quoted. The militant Gay Pride guy would say "Hmpf. Healed of what?" And the penitent homosexual would say, "Healing? Thank you."
You ask:
“If you see where he is saying homosexuality is sin that needs repentance, I’d like to know what phrase it is.”
Here is part of it:
“During the return flight from Rio de Janeiro I said that if a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge.”
From a Catholic perspective, no one who is of good will and is in search of God will not find Him, and it is God who will bring that person to repentance and conversion. It’s a little too subtle for my own taste. It presupposes that one takes as prologue the entirety of Catholic teaching, and I doubt many listeners are doing that, even many Catholic ones (yes, I’m talking to all you “social justice Catholics” and “seamless garment Catholics,” as well as most of you Jesuits).
But the pope can, I guess, impose on the listener the assumption of that presupposition. After all, he is the pope, and it is unrealistic to presuppose differently.
Yet, many of his listeners will presuppose differently.
And the pope should know this.
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