Pope Francis is continuing to surprise us: Most recently His Eminence has offered a personal blessing to an Italian gay group.

Kairos, a Catholic LGBT organization, sent a letter to Francis asking for a dialogue with the Church and bemoaning the silence its always received from Archbishop Giuseppe Betori of Florence. They asked Francis to be recognized as people and not as a "category."

La Repubblica, Italy's most prominent newspaper, is reporting the Vatican Secretariat of State replied to their plea and, according to Kairos' Innocenzo Pontillo, Pope Francis revealed that he "really enjoyed that we wrote, calling it an act of 'spontaneous confidence,' and [appreciated] the way in which we had written."

While the contents of the letters is being kept confidential, Pontillo claims Pope Francis also gave them "his blessing."

It's possible the exchange prompted Francis to declare in July,  ‘'If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?"

Between this, and Francis calling on a Synod of the Bishops to revisit the question of divorced and remarried Catholics, we have a feeling the Pope has the Cardinals pulling their hair out.

Good.