It’s unlikely Pope Francis has ever heard of state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, but when the pontiff sat for his first interview, which was published last week, several of his statements could have served as advice for the Republican from Cranberry Township.

Metcalfe, a Christian conservative, chairs the House Government Committee, which is sitting on legislation that would ban discrimination against gay people in the workplace and in housing.

Metcalfe has pledged not to release the bill for a vote, arguing its passage would violate “the rights of individuals who have religious objections to that type of lifestyle.”

That’s a stretch. And it’s not very Christian either, according to the pope’s recent comments.

“A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality,” Francis said in the interview, which was published worldwide last week in several Catholic journals. “I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human being. In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation. It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.”

Metcalfe has been widely criticized for refusing to separate his deeply held religious convictions from his legislative duties. However, the pope, approaching from a different perspective; implies that the legislator’s religious convictions give him a moral imperative to respect and defend all individuals as children of God.

Throughout the interview, Francis dwells on the Jesuit principle of discernment — the ability to keep great and tiny things in perspective while keeping one’s self in alignment with God’s point of view.

He cites the late Pope John XXIII, who, “in his own way ... adopted this attitude with regard to the government of the church, when he repeated the motto, ‘See everything; turn a blind eye to much; correct a little.’ John XXIII saw all things, the maximum dimension, but he chose to correct a few, the minimum dimension.”

That’s another nugget of wisdom for Metcalfe to embrace. The legislation he holds hostage grants nothing more than is already implied under state and federal law. Withholding the law accomplishes nothing.

The bill Metcalfe opposes has bipartisan support with 90 co-sponsors. An identical bill in the Senate has 25 co-sponsors. The anti-discrimination bills have strong public support as well.

Acceptance of gay rights is no big deal, if we adhere to Pope Francis’ suggestion: “always consider the person.” It’s only when we fail to consider the person that it becomes a bigger deal than it needs to be.