Is the pope judging you?: Digital narratives on religion and homosexuality in Italy

‘If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?’ (Donadio, 2013). With these words, pronounced on the plane back from Brazil a few months after his election, Pope Francis addressed the problem of gay clergy within the Roman Catholic Church. The words were considered by many as an innovation for the Church since Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been the first Pope to publicly use the word ‘gay’. His rhetor-ical question ‘who am I to judge?’ kindled debates worldwide, especially in countries which are traditionally and majoritarian Catholic, such as Italy. A number of media outlets interpreted the sentence as an attitude change of the Church towards homosexuality. The Italian version of the Huffington Post for instance titled an article ‘Pope Francis opened to homosexuals: “God made us free”’ (L’Huffington Post, 2013)