Gay Catholics Given VIP Seats At Pope Audience

A group of gay and lesbian Catholics have been given VIP seats during an audience with the Pope for the first time - a move heralded as "welcoming people from the outside closer to the inside of the Church".

The New Ways Ministry, based in the US, has been making pilgrimages to Vatican City for years, and each of their requests to sit up front were denied during the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

But in what is being described as "the Francis effect", dozens of homosexual pilgrims were provided with VIP seats for the Pope's address on Ash Wednesday.

However, the New Ways Ministry was not specifically named in the Vatican's list of attendees - and their congregation was not given a mention by Pope Francis, even though other pilgrimage groups did receive a papal shout-out.

Sister Jeannine Gramick, who leads the New Ways Ministry and promotes gay rights in the Catholic Church, believes the invitation is a sign of progress - as Francis' predecessors had "just ignored them" during previous visits.

Months after Pope Francis was elected, he remarked how it was impossible to judge gay people who are good-willed and seeking God. But there are no signs that the Church will change its message that homosexual acts are sinful.

Although the Vatican released a report last year calling for greater acceptance of homosexuals in the Catholic Church, complaints by conservative bishops led to the clause being watered down considerably.

Following their audience with Pope Francis, the co-founders of the New Ways Ministry said: "Pope Francis gives us hope. We didn't get the shout-out - but we were very, very close."