My Take | Catholic Cardinal John Tong Hon has more tolerant tone towards gays now

Last year, Cardinal John Tong Hon used his Christmas message to denounce gay marriages, saying a real union could only be between a man and a woman.

That sparked a fierce reaction from gay rights groups. Yesterday, the good cardinal went back to reaffirming family values in his festive missive without explicitly saying what type of unit it should be or the sexual orientations of those in a union. What a difference a year makes!

That's because he has a new boss now in Rome and the new pope is not nearly as anti-gay as his predecessor. In fact, he is starting to sound rather tolerant.

Tong's previous message no doubt pleased his old boss Pope Benedict, who had described homosexuality as "an intrinsic moral evil" and "an objective disorder".

But Pope Francis made a splash this summer in the world media and sent shockwaves through the worldwide Catholic community when he said in Italian: "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?" He spoke the word gay in English.

For this, the US-based gay magazine The Advocate has named him Person of the Year.