Wanting to meet potential partners through dating apps like Tinder is “normal,” and the church’s teaching on sex is “still in diapers,” Pope Francis said in a conversation with a group of young people gathered in Rome.

..the young people, a mix of Catholics, Christians, agnostics, atheists and a Muslim, asked the pope if he has a salary (no), a cellphone (no) and what he thinks about young people meeting romantic partners on Tinder.

“It’s normal,” he said. “Young people have that eagerness to meet each other, and that’s very good.”

In a conversation on pornography and masturbation opened by a young woman who says she creates adult content, the pope said that “expressing yourself sexually is a richness,” but that “everything that diminishes real sexual expression diminishes you too, it makes you partial, and it impoverishes that richness.”

The pope warned against labeling all sexual activity as “ugly” and said the church’s “catechesis on sex is still in diapers.”

“Christians haven’t always had a mature catechesis on sex,” he added.

Asked by a self-described nonbinary person about the treatment of LGBTQ people in the church, Pope Francis said … “I don’t have the right to cast anyone out from the church,” said the pope, referring to members of the LGBTQ community. “My job is to receive, always.”

STORY