Pope Francis said on Sunday that Christians and the Roman Catholic Church should seek forgiveness from gays for the way they had treated them.

Speaking to reporters aboard a plane taking him back to Rome from Armenia, the pope also said the church should ask forgiveness for the way it has treated women, for turning a blind eye to child labor and for “blessing so many weapons” in the past.

In an hourlong freewheeling conversation that has become a trademark of his international travels, Francis was asked by a reporter if he agreed with recent comments by a Roman Catholic cardinal from Germany that the church should apologize to gays and if an apology was made more urgent by the killing of 49 people at a gay club in Florida this month.

Francis, looking sad, recalled church teachings that homosexuals “should not be discriminated against.”