Father James Martin, SJ, on Francis's Comments about Gays: "This Is a Sea Change"

James Martin, SJ, at America's "In All Things Blog" on Francis's comments:

The Italian may give the best insight into his thinking, and also, notably, uses the word "gay." 

And: 

The lesser-noticed change in the Pope' revolutionary words during his in-flight interview was, at least according to the translation in the Italian-language "Vatican Insider," the use of the word "gay," which is traditionally not used by popes, bishops or Vatican officials.  This is a sea change. 

These are very important observations, I think. I'm grateful to Father Martin for making them.

But as I said in my first posting this morning,  the headline of John Allen's report on Francis's remarks at the NCR site today reads, "Pope on Homosexuals: 'Who Am I to Judge?'" If Pope Francis used the Italian word "gay" and not "homosexual" in his comments, why John Allen's headline, I wonder?

By contrast, in his article to which I just linked several minutes ago, Ken Briggs--also writing for NCR--says several times that the pope was speaking about gay priests.