Stephen K. Amos

I cannot be on TV groveling to a man who's the head of the religion that I don't believe accepts people like me.

And then part of our group, there was a woman from the Muslim faith, a Jewish woman.

They both turned to me and said, do you know what?

If anybody of any other religious denomination invites me into their home, I would go.

And that taught me a lesson, a really big, important lesson about being on the back foot and having your own preconceived notions projected on other people.

So I said, you know what?

I'm happy to meet the Pope only if we can ask questions.

Wow.

And the word came back.

The Vatican were happy to answer any question.

What kind of questions are they, Steve?

We don't want to spark a diplomatic incident.

Anyway, so we met the Pope.

And I've got to say, maybe it's because he's the Pope or whatever.

But there was, as far as I'm concerned, a kind of aura about him.

I tell you, he was great.

And I got to ask a couple of questions, and one of the questions was, I said, I've lost people in my life who were quite religious.

I'm not a religious person, but I do want to know...

if indeed there is a promised land, will a man like myself, a gay man, be accepted?

And I was prepared for him to say, you know, yeah, right?