A cardinal has downplayed Pope Francis’ surprising comments where he said: ‘Who am I to judge gay people?’

On Monday, the leader of the Catholic Church responded to a question about gay Catholic clergy.

‘If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?’ he said.

‘The problem is not having this orientation. We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem.’

The next day, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is also the archbishop of New York said homosexual acts was still a sin.

During an appearance on CBS’ This Morning, Dolan insisted the Church has long embraced gay people and Francis’ comments did not represent a new tone or establish a more liberal Catholicism.

‘Homosexuality is not a sin, right? Homosexual acts are,’ Dolan said.

‘Just like heterosexuality is not a sin outside of marriage, that would be sinful.

He added: ‘While certain acts may be wrong, [the Pope] would always love and respect the person and treat the person with dignity and not judge them.’

In the past, Dolan has not exactly followed his own teachings.

While lobbying against marriage equality in New York, he compared the ‘threat’ of gay marriage to polygamy, adultery, forced marriage, communist dictatorships and incest.