A victim of clerical sexual abuse has said that Pope Francis told him that God made him gay and that his sexuality “does not matter.”

Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of sexual abuse, spent three days with Pope Francis at the Vatican in April, in which he discussed his sexuality and the abuse he suffered at the hands of a Chilean priest.

Describing his meeting with the Pope on CNN, Cruz said: “You know Juan Carlos, that does not matter, God made you like that, God loves you like that, the Pope loves you like that and you must love yourself and not worry about what people are saying.”

The words of the pope amount to a significant deviation from the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, which considers homosexuality “objectively disordered” and contrary to the law of God.

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke told CNN on Monday: “Normally we do not comment on the Pope’s private conversations.”

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