CNA Staff, Oct 21, 2020 / 06:35 am (CNA).-
In a documentary that premiered Wednesday in Rome, Pope Francis called for the passage of civil union laws for same-sex couples, departing from the position of the Vatican’s doctrinal office and the pope’s predecessors on the issue.
The remarks came amid a portion of the documentary that reflected on pastoral care for those who identify as LGBT.
“Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it,” Pope Francis said in the film, of his approach to pastoral care.
After those remarks, and in comments likely to spark controversy among Catholics, Pope Francis weighed in directly on the issue of civil unions for same-sex couples.
“What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,” the pope said. “I stood up for that.”
The remarks come in “Francesco,” a documentary on the life and ministry of Pope Francis which premiered Oct. 21 as part of the Rome Film Festival, and is set to make its North American premiere on Sunday.
The film chronicles the approach of Pope Francis to pressing social issues, and to pastoral ministry among those who live, in the words of the pontiff, “on the existential peripheries.”
Featuring interviews with Vatican figures including Cardinal Luis Tagle and other collaborators of the pope, “Francesco” looks at the pope’s advocacy for migrants and refugees, the poor, his work on the issue of clerical sexual abuse, the role of women in society, and the disposition of Catholics and others toward those who identify as LGBT.
The film addresses the pastoral outreach of Pope Francis to those who identify as LGBT, including a story of the pontiff encouraging two Italian men in a same-sex relationship to raise their children in their parish church, which, one of the men said, was greatly beneficial to his children.
“He didn’t mention what was his opinion on my family. Probably he’s following the doctrine on this point,” the man said, while praising the pope for a disposition and attitude of welcome and encouragement.
The pope’s remarks on civil unions come amid that part of the documentary. Filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky told CNA that the pope made his call for civil unions during an interview the documentarian conducted with the pope.
The pope’s direct call for civil union laws represents a shift from the perspective of his predecessors, and from his own more circumspect positions on civil unions in the past.
In 2010, while he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis opposed efforts to legalize same-sex marriage. While Sergio Rubin, the future pope’s biographer, suggested that Francis supported the idea of civil unions as a way to prevent the wholesale adoption of same-sex marriage in Argentina, Miguel Woites, director of the Argentinian Catholic news outlet AICA, dismissed in 2013 that claim as false.
But the pope’s mention of having previously “stood up” for civil unions seems to confirm the reports of Rubin and others who said that then-Cardinal Bergoglio supported privately the idea of civil unions as a compromise in Argentina.
In the 2013 book “On Heaven and Earth,” Pope Francis did not reject the possibility of civil unions outright, but did say that laws “assimilating” homosexual relationships to marriage are “an anthropological regression,” and he expressed concern that if same-sex couples “are given adoption rights, there could be affected children. Every person needs a male father and a female mother that can help them shape their identity.”
In 2014, Fr. Thomas Rosica, who was then working in the Holy See’s press office told CNA that Pope Francis had not expressed support for same-sex civil unions, after some journalists reported that he had done so in an an interview that year. While a civil unions proposal was debated in Italy, Rosica emphasized that Francis would not weigh in on the debate, but would emphasize Catholic teaching on marriage.
In 2003, under the leadership of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and at the direction of Pope John Paul II, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith taught that “respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions. The common good requires that laws recognize, promote and protect marriage as the basis of the family, the primary unit of society.”
“Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity. The Church cannot fail to defend these values, for the good of men and women and for the good of society itself,” the CDF added, calling support for such unions from politicians “gravely immoral.”
“Not even in a remote analogous sense do homosexual unions fulfil the purpose for which marriage and family deserve specific categorical recognition. On the contrary, there are good reasons for holding that such unions are harmful to the proper development of human society, especially if their impact on society were to increase,” the document said.
The Vatican’s press office did not respond to questions from CNA on the pope’s remarks in the film.
While bishops in some countries have not opposed same-sex civil unions proposals, and tried instead to distinguish them from civil marriage, opponents of civil unions have long warned that they serve as a legislative and cultural bridge to same-sex marraige initiatives, give tacit approval to immorality, and fail to protect the rights of children to be parented by both a mother and father.
Afineevsky told EWTN News this month that he tried in “Francesco” to present the pope as he saw him, and that the film might not please all Catholics. He told CNA Wednesday that in his view, the film is not “about” the pope’s call for civil unions, but “about many other global issues.”
“I’m looking at him not as the pope, I’m looking at him as a humble human being, great role model to younger generation, leader for the older generation, a leader to many people not in the sense of the Catholic Church, but in the sense of pure leadership, on the ground, on the streets,” Afineevsky added.
The documentarian said he began working with the Vatican to produce a film on Pope Francis in 2018, and was given unprecedented access to Pope Francis until filming completed in June, amid Italy’s coronavirus lockdowns.
Afineevsky, a Russian-born filmmaker living in the U.S., was in 2015 nominated for both an Academy Award and an Emmy Award for his work “Winter on Fire,” a documentary that chronicled Ukraine’s 2013 and 2014 Euromaidan protests. His 2017 film “Cries from Syria” was nominated for four News and Documentary Emmy Awards and three Critics’ Choice Awards.
On Thursday, Afineevsky will be presented in the Vatican Gardens with the prestigious Kineo Movie for Humanity Award, which recognizes filmmakers who present social and humanitarian issues through filmmaking. The award was established in 2002 by the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Rosetta Sannelli, the creator of the Kineo Awards, noted that “every trip of Pope Francis to various parts of the world is documented in Afineevsky’s work, in images and news footage, and reveals itself as an authentic glimpse into the events of our time, a historical work in all respects.”
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Lifting up hearts and minds in prayer and thanksgiving is an act in world-building.
“Within a paragraph about human freedom, the document states that religious plurality is willed by God. ‘The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings,’ the document states.”
Yes, not only is that “Catholic Teaching” but also Islamic/Koranic teaching…probably not.
That someone is a “revert” when they become a Muslim vs a “convert” is a first clue.
Thank you for that observation , on being considered a ‘revert’.. that might be the truth and wisdom they have kept from the Christian Patrimony that we need to take in,
with enough enthusiasm as well, esp. considering the practical oneness , in the falleness , that we share with the nonbelievers at many levels too , including the idolatry of greed , rebellion, pride etc etc too ..
The power of the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart , to help us deepen in trust and gratitude to proclaim with her and others – ‘ The Holy Spirit has come down upon me , the power of the Almighty is overshadowing me ‘ , to conform us all to the goodness of The Father , in His Son, in the power of His Spirit ..
‘ Show us The Father , that shall be sufficient for us ‘ and the profound , touching words of response from The Lord – ‘ if you have seen Me, you have seen The Father ..’ ., yet , so much hanging on that ‘if ‘
Mankind , ever since The Garden, struggling to see The Father ..often being duped to follow the father below instead ..
Holy Father, our Pope , after his name sake St.Francis , who could see goodness of The Father, in so much around him ..
St.Francis , to this day bears witness to that goodness , in those rose bushes that shed the thorns , as a reward for his holy purity .. they can even seem at first glance , as being even ‘unnatural’ …
Sexuality , with its carnal ways , having been a thorn of rebellion , in the hands of the enemy , enough to make persons think that human life itself is a mere byproduct of same , not planned, loved and foreseen by The Father from all eternity .
And The Father , in hiddenness , all the while preparing a holy Mother , conceived more by the power of spoken holy words , in love, by her parents than by carnality,
a power of His own that The Father had desired to share with Adam too ..
He waited , till the New Adam, who bestows that power of spoken words, in Him , upon His holy priests too..
Interesting how we have 2/11 – in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes , the Immaculate conception , also the day when Pope Emer. Benedict resigned – seeing the deeper need for healing in this realm may be ..
7/11 – Feast of St.Benedict , when many are yearning for the kind of purity and discipline in our culture .
Thankfully , The Church heeding the call, to a life of adoring the Hidden Lord, in The Eucharist , as a means of being spared the destructive , divisive sounds and words of the world .
Our Holy Father too an advocate of same .
9/11 – good to hear of the above initiative in the article , to see it as a day of gratitude to The Father , even if like children, those of other faiths may not grasp the Truth that well – we do not see little children as being unworthy of the Kingdom , because of ignorance , instead trusts how He desires for them to be there with Him, to behold the face of The Father .
9/11 here might serve any more also as a symbol of the need for deeper repentance for our own depravity , in rejecting life and children , families and marriages ..
That repentance , thus to help prepare better for The Feast of The Cross ..The Blood and water , to wash off , burn off all thorns of rebellion and disbelief in the goodness of The Father .
Such a deep trust , in The Father , in the heart of the Holy Father , who has witnessed the Eucharistic Miracle , thus the power of spoken words , in Him, to bless all His children , for mercy on us and the whole world ..
Glory be !
“Within a paragraph about human freedom, the document states that religious plurality is willed by God. “The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings,” the document states.”
What?
WHAT?
*****WHAT*****?????????
What utter balderdash. Tripe. Bilge. Baloney. Malarkey.
Okay, I just did some searching, and Bishop Athanasius Schneider apparently asked Pope Francis about that.
“On the topic of my concern about the phrase used in the Abu Dhabi document – that God “wills” the diversity of religions – the Pope’s answer was very clear: he said that the diversity of religions is only the permissive will of God. He stressed this and told us: you can say this, too, that the diversity of religions is the permissive will of God.
“I tried to go more deeply into the question, at least by quoting the sentence as it reads in the document. The sentence says that as God wills the diversity of sexes, color, race and language, so God wills the diversity of religions. There is an evident comparison between the diversity of religions and the diversity of sexes.
“I mentioned this point to the Holy Father, and he acknowledged that, with this direct comparison, the sentence can be understood erroneously. I stressed in my response to him that the diversity of sexes is not the permissive will of God but is positively willed by God. And the Holy Father acknowledged this and agreed with me that the diversity of the sexes is not a matter of God’s permissive will.
“But when we mention both of these phrases in the same sentence, then the diversity of religions is interpreted as positively willed by God, like the diversity of sexes. The sentence therefore leads to doubt and erroneous interpretations, and so it was my desire, and my request that the Holy Father rectify this. But he said to us bishops: you can say that the phrase in question on the diversity of religions means the permissive will of God.”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-schneider-extracts-clarification-on-diversity-of-religions-from-pope-francis-brands-abuse-summit-a-failure
Surely when one speaks confusingly one is obligated to correct it everywhere the original statement is made, not just to give permission to a few people to explain it.