meaning - How can I spell out Pope Francis’s remark on gay priests, ‘Who am I to judge?’


In a New York Times article from July 29, 2013, introduced Pope Francis’s remark on gay priests which was made aboard the papal airplane on the way back from his first foreign trip, to Brazil.



“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis told reporters, speaking in Italian but using the English word “gay.”



Pope spoke this in Italian. Is ‘Who am I to judge?’ a right translation? Couldn't it be ‘Whom am I to judge?’, or "Who am I if I were to judge?" How can I spell out this phrase?


P.S.


Ross Douthat provided full text of Pope’s remark including “Who am I to judge.” in NYT Jul 30 issue:



“A gay person who is seeking God, who is of good will - well, who am I to judge him? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says one must not marginalize these persons, they must be integrated into society. The problem isn’t this orientation — we must be like brothers and sisters. The problem is something else, the problem is lobbying either for this orientation or a political lobby or a Masonic lobby.”



http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/pope-francis-in-context/?hp&_r=0


I was under the impression that “Who am I to judge” was just a clip from a short Q&A between Pope and reporters aboard papal plane, but it was a part of well-structured discourse. It seems I made a premature post, without checking full context of Pope’s message. Now meaning is pretty clear to me.



Answer



"Who am I to judge" is the correct translation.


It is not a question about judging someone else and asking who that might be (using whom as the object of judge): it is a question about the asker himself — Who am I?


It means "What status do I have that allows me to judge?"


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