Pope Francis Voices Support for Civil Union Between Homosexuals

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In a documentary film that premiered on Wednesday, October 21st, in Italy, Pope Francis stated that homosexuals need to be protected by civil union laws. This was the Francis’s most explicit approach to LGBTI rights in his time as Pope.

“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God and have the right to a family. No one should be excluded or unhappy about it,” he says in the documentary “Francesco”.

“What we have to have is a civil union law. That way they will be legally considered. I have defended this,” he said.

The Pope’s speech emerges halfway through the documentary. He talks about topics he is concerned with, such as the environment, poverty, migration, racial and income inequality, and people most affected by discrimination.

Civil union, not marriage

Pope Francis has shown interest in dialogue with LGBTI Catholics in the past, but his messages are generally about welcoming these faithful.

He has sent subtle messages that could be interpreted as being favorable to civil union.

When Cristina Kirchner was the president of Argentina, the country legalized same-sex marriage. He was not yet the Pope at the time, but rather Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

According to a 2014 text from the “Religion News Service” (RNS) agency, Bergoglio even said he was open to accepting civil union as an alternative to marriage between same-sex individuals.

Filipe Domingues, a Vaticanist with a doctorate from the Gregorian University in Rome, explains that while still a cardinal, Bergoglio was in favor of same-sex civil union: “He is against ‘gay marriage’ but agrees that people in a stable union have rights. This is not new. But he declared this in a documentary, as Francis, for the first time.”

Domingues also points out that the Pope was more explicit now when he spoke of “being part of a family”. “This is important”, he stresses.

In 2014, Pope Francis gave an interview to the newspaper “Corriere della Sera” in which he said that the Church teaches that marriage is between a man and a woman. According to the RNS agency, he said he understands that governments want to foster civil union for gay couples for economic motives.

According to “Corriere della Sera,” the Pope said that “one must consider different cases and assess each one individually”. The Vatican then clarified that Francis spoke generically and that people should not interpret the Pope’s words beyond what they mean.

Documentary premiere

The movie was screened at the Rome Film Festival on Wednesday. On Sunday, October 25th, it will be screened in the U.S. for the first time during the Savannah Film Festival.

Director Evgeny Afineevsky finished shooting in June 2020. The documentary addresses topics such as the pandemic, racism, and sexual abuse. There are also geopolitical topics such as the war in Syria and Ukraine.

According to the Argentinean newspaper “La Nación”, the documentary features a gay Italian living in Rome. He has three children and reports that he once wrote to the Pope and asked to send his children to the parish, but was afraid that they would be subject to discrimination.

The man claims that Pope Francis encouraged him to send his children to Church but never said what his opinion was about a family made up of gay parents and that, although the church’s doctrine has not changed, the way of dealing with the issue has radically changed.

Source: G1