Jessica Durando

USA TODAY

In a groundbreaking statement about homosexuality, Pope Francis says Christians and the Catholic Church should seek forgiveness from gay people and others they have offended or treated poorly in the past.

"I repeat what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: that they must not be discriminated against, that they must be respected and accompanied pastorally," the pope told reporters Sunday aboard the papal plane returning from Armenia to Rome.

In 2013, Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church's position on homosexuality, saying that homosexual acts were sinful but not homosexual orientation.

The pope's comments came in response to a question asked by a journalist about a German cardinal who said the church should apologize for being "very negative" about gays, multiple media outlets reported.

Francis was on an official visit to Armenia from June 24-26. During a one-hour conversation on the plane, the pope touched on many topics involving the church and forgiveness for those it has marginalized.

“I think that the church not only should apologize to the person who is gay whom it offended, but it must also apologize to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by (being forced to) work. It must apologize for having blessed so many weapons,” Francis added, according to Reuters.

Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest, called the pope's statements "a groundbreaking moment."

"While St. John Paul II apologized to several groups in 2000 — the Jewish people, indigenous peoples, immigrants and women, among them — no pope has ever come close to apologizing to the LGBT community," Martin told CNN. "And the pope is correct of course. First, because forgiveness is an essential part of the Christian life. And second, because no group feels more marginalized in the church today than LGBT people."