Yayo Grassi, gay friend of Pope, says Francis's LGBT quotes have been "cherry picked and twisted."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/10/02/meet-yayo-grassi-the-gay-man-who-is-friends-with-pope-francis/
Grassi brought his boyfriend of 19 years, Iwan, and four friends to the Vatican Embassy for a private audience. Grassi, wearing a bright blue blazer, embraced his former teacher, now clothed in white, and then introduced him to Iwan and his friends. When news broke about Kim Daviss attendance at the Vatican, Grassi decided to speak out.
Although I didnt know any details, I knew immediately that he had nothing to do with this, that this was arranged by other people without telling him the real character of Davis, Grassi said. I received from friends of mine a lot of quite disturbing mail, telling me that This is your pope, look what he did, and hes a coward, and my defense is We dont know anything. Just wait until things come out. And Im extremely pleased that I was right. And I never had any doubt that I was right.
In 2010, when Francis was a cardinal in Argentina, Grassi read media reports that his former teacher had condemned the legalization of same-sex marriage.
So he sent a long e-mail to the cardinal expressing his disappointment, and the cardinal responded that his words had been cherry-picked and twisted, and that the reported sentiment was not true, according to Grassi.
He wrote that e-mail with all the respect of the world, Grassi said. I stood firm on my position and I ended the e-mail saying Dont think it was easy for me to write this e-mail but I had to do it, and I think it was the right thing to do because 40 years ago you taught me I had to do it. He wrote back to me telling me, first of all, how sorry he was that he had hurt my feelings, that he had hurt me. One of the things he said on that e-mail was that I want you to know that in my work there is absolutely no place for homophobia. And I think thats what I want people to know.