David Cameron disputed Pope Francis' point by saying: "in a free society, there is a right to cause offence about someone's religion".
The pontiff was reacting to the shootings at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo when he said it was wrong to insult other people's faiths.
"You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others," he said.
But when asked about the comments the Prime Minister said: "I'm a Christian. If someone says something offensive about Jesus, I might find that offensive, but in a free society I don't have a right to wreak my vengeance upon them.
"We have to accept that newspapers, magazines can publish things that are offensive to some as long as it's within the law.
"My job is not to tell a newspaper what to publish or what not to publish. My job is to uphold the law that they can publish things within the law."