Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.
Pope Francis, the first pontiff to endorse same-sex civil unions, in comments for a documentary that premiered Wednesday.
ROME—Pope Francis became the first pontiff to endorse same-sex civil unions in comments for a documentary that premiered Wednesday, sparking cheers from gay Catholics and demands for clarification from conservatives, given the Vatican’s official teaching on the issue.
The papal thumbs-up came midway through the featurelength documentary “Francesco,” which premiered at the Rome Film Festival. The film, which features fresh interviews with the Pope, delves into issues Francis cares about most, including the environment, poverty, migration, racial and income inequality, and the people most affected by discrimination.
“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God,” Francis said. “You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”
While serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis endorsed civil unions for gay couples as an alternative to samesex marriages. However, he had never come out publicly in favour of civil unions as Pope, and no pontiff before him had, either.
The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit who has sought to build bridges with gay Catholics, praised the comments as “a major step forward in the church’s support for LGBT people.”
“The pope’s speaking positively about civil unions also sends a strong message to places where the church has opposed such laws,” Martin said in a statement.
However, conservative Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, R.I., called for clarification. “The Pope’s statement clearly contradicts what has been the long-standing teaching of the church about same-sex unions,” he said in a statement. “The church cannot support the acceptance of objectively immoral relationships.”
And Ed Mechmann, director of public policy at the Archdiocese of New York, said in a blog post that the Pope had simply “made a serious mistake.”
Catholic teaching holds that gay people must be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” A 2003 document from the Vatican’s doctrine offff in for gay people “cannot lead any way to approval of homosexual behaviour.”