During a press conference aboard the papal plane as it returned from Armenia on Sunday night, Pope Francis said he agreed Christians owe apologies to gays and other marginalized people who have been offended or exploited by the church. On Monday some Catholics continued to celebrate the comments as a “breakthrough” in the Catholic Church’s tone toward homosexuality.

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“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,” Francis said on the plane. “The Church must ask forgiveness for not behaving many times — when I say the Church, I mean Christians! The Church is holy. We are sinners!”

The pope added, “I believe that the church not only should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended,” he added, “but has to apologize to the poor, to exploited women, to children exploited for labor. It has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons.”

Francis was responding to question from a reporter about a German cardinal who said the Catholic Church should apologize for being “very negative” about gays.

The problem is “a person that has a condition,” the pope said — and echoing his own comments back in 2013, noted that that if the person “has good will and who seeks God, who are we to judge?”

“We must accompany them well … this is what the catechism says, a clear catechism.” Pope Francis spoke to some 70 journalists aboard his flight from Armenia, which he visited June 24 to 26, as Catholic News Agency and others reported on Monday.

To read more about the pope’s most recent activities, click here.