VATICAN CITY -- The presence of a 'gay lobby' in the Vatican has been acknowledged by Honduran cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, when confronted with questions about an "infiltration" of the gay community in the Church in an interview with Honduras newspaper El Heraldo.

 He claimed that Pope Francis himself was aware of this lobby, and was part of an attempt to "neutralise" and "purify" it in favour of adopting a more gradual approach.

 In the interview he attempted to clarify the Vatican's stance on the issue, after comments made by the pope regarding gay and lesbian people were interpreted as meaning he was open to the possibility of the Church endorsing gay marriage. "One can understand homosexuals, and there is pastoral legislation to deal with this, but what is wrong cannot become the truth," he said. "We must understand that there are things that can be reformed, and others that cannot. Natural law cannot be the subject of reform."

 Maradiaga is one of the new cardinals that make up the C9 Council, a working group set up by the pope to reform the Church and that has provoked much dispute within the Catholic community. Lobbies have recently posed powerful opposition to Francis and are beginning to play a new role in Church politics, posing what he described as a "grave problem" for him.

 However, Francis' position on homosexuals remains somewhat ambiguous, after he said in a 2013 interview that "If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge them?" He is the first Pope ever to have uttered the word "gay" in public.   ft