Pope Francis figuratively rained on Rome’s annual gay pride march last weekend by spewing anti-gay rhetoric from inside The Vatican. He told an audience of around 25,000 Catholics at Sunday service on June 14, that LGBT parents are incapable of raising children properly just a day after Rome’s pride march. Francis was at one point in time considered to be one of the most progressive pontiffs in history but he seems to have devolved on LGBT issues in the last year making theses negative public statements against the LGBT community. According to Religion News Service, Francis claimed the differences between men and women are

“an integral part of being human. They’re not scared of the differences! What great richness this diversity is, a diversity which becomes complimentary, but also reciprocal. It binds them, one to the other.

Children mature seeing their father and mother like this; their identity matures being confronted with the love their father and mother have, confronted with this difference.”

This statement highlights a conflict that’s been brewing between Vatican City and the city of Rome, outside its walls. Rome has gradually begun to embrace LGBT equality. This Pope seems to constantly go two steps forward and then three steps back. In the end, who cares what he says –except for the one billion Catholics on the planet, that is, (Top photo, Getty; via NewNowNext)