This week Ulrike Lunacek, a Vice President for the European Parliament, and openly lesbian Austrian Green MP, gave a rainbow scarf to Pope Francis.
.@UlrikeLunacek hat heute Papst Franziskus einen Regenbogen-Schal für Lesben, Schwule und für Frieden übergeben.
I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed about the fact that you didn't address any of the other urgent things inside the church and outside.Women's issues, women's rights inside the church. Today is the International Day [for the Elimination of] Violence Against Women. I think you should have mentioned something like that.It would be great if you had spoken up in favour of same-sex marriage or also for the use of contraceptives, for example, especially in times of HIV and other situations.But I didn't hear that and that was a bit disappointing.
The pope seems to accept the scarf and then quickly passes it to a vatican official.
Pope Francis has been seen as more liberal than his predecessors, and once said "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?"
But recently the Catholic church rejected a proposal to relax its attitudes towards homosexual relationships and still teaches that homosexual relationships are "intrinsically disordered".
Ulrike Lunacek is Austria's first openly gay MEP.
Lunacek was the victim of an acid attack at this year's Vienna pride festival. She was sprayed with butyric acid while giving an interview at the Rainbow Parade, but incredibly, no one was hurt.
Pope Francis didn’t put the rainbow scarf on in public, but here's an artist’s impression of what that would look like.
