Vatican gives gay and lesbian Catholics VIP seats at Pope Francis' weekly audience

At Pope Francis' weekly general audience on Wednesday, the Vatican gave a group of U.S. gay and lesbian Catholics from the VIP seats.

However, The Associated Press notes that Francis didn't announce the group's presence, and the Vatican's list of attendees described the visitors as "a group of lay people accompanied by a Sister of Loretto."

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But the visitors, who were officials from New Ways Ministry, were still happy that they were invited to sit at the front of the audience. They held reserved seats with Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, the "prefect of the papal household." The ministry told AP that the last two popes had refused requests for VIP seats for its members. Under Pope Benedict XVI's papacy, the New Ways Ministry co-founders were forbidden from ministering to gay Catholics.

"Pope Francis gives me hope," Sister Jeannine Gramick, one of the New Ways Ministry co-founders, told AP. "To me, this is an example of the kind of willingness he has to welcome those on the fringes of the church back to the center of the church."