Feature: Pope Benedict XVI’s biggest gay moments

3. Back in January 2012, the Pope said that allowing equal marriage would threaten “the future of humanity”.

The comment formed part of an address to a meeting of 180 diplomats at the Vatican. He said: “Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.”

During a Christmas address at the Vatican, the Pope also praised an essay by France’s Chief Rabbi, who described equal marriage as a “Trojan horse”, which would “undermine” straight marriage.

2. During a trip to the small west African republic of Benin, The Pope said that the spread of the HIV virus on the African Continent was “above all an ethical problem”.

While he unveiled the Africae Munus, which details the future of the Catholicism in the continent, the Pope reiterated his stance that condoms should not be used in place of sexual abstinence or chastity in marriage. 

Two years prior, he told a journalist that condoms could cause the HIV virus to spread further, though the Vatican later appeared to reverse this statement.

1. Number one, just because it is so perfectly ironic, in December 2012, Pope Benedict used his message for World Day of Peace 2013 to describe equal marriage as a threat to justice and peace, adding that it would spark harm for society. 

The Catholic leader said: “There is also a need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union.

“Such attempts actually harm and help to destabilise marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society”, the Pope told worshipers.