
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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See? The pope is dialoguing here.
Looking forward. Not rigid or regressive at all.
“A person who thinks he is a great theologian.” This description given by the Pope best portrays a lot of the frequent bashers and slanderers against Pope Francis. With the little theological study they made they think they are superior than the Pope and by through their social and mass media magisterium frequently judge him as not properly teaching the faith, or worse a heretic. They really think they are more Catholic than the Pope. Indeed, a little theological knowledge is dangerous!
Dear James:
A simple man using scripture as his guide can level effective and competent counter-arguments to anyone who is presenting a different doctrine to what Jesus Christ gave to mankind! The most important component is the indwelling of the Holy Spirt. That is what truly changes a man and allows him to confess Jesus Christ as Lord.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Hebrews 6:18 So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
Hebrews 6:17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,
1 Timothy 1:17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
1 Timothy 5:20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
James, so now you’re invoking the Appeal to Authority Fallacy to defend Bergoglio?
Really?
No one who’s not a priest or theologian has a right to criticize the pope, right? That’s what you’re saying?
I’m sorry, James, but you’re making me laugh. Because Bergoglio is always the first to deride that kind of clericalism.
But never fear. There are at least a dozen other classic logical fallacies you can resort to next time.
LOL!
At the following link there are numerous examples of the character flaws of the Pontiff – who is by his own admission not a Canon lawyer, not a liturgist, not a theologian and who would likely, in my opinion, make a lousy sacristan – who Father Kolvenbach warned should not be ordained a Bishop due to his psychological balance being lacking, that he had a deceitful character and that during his time as Provincial, he had divided Argentina. We’ve had nearly ten years to witness firsthand exactly what kind of person the Bishop of Rome is despite the best efforts of his sycophants to obscure the truth.
The Pope Francis
LittleBumper Book of Insults“We have a very creative vocabulary for insulting Others!” – Pope Francis, 19 June 2016
James, really? Anyone has at their fingertips the Revealed Theology of the Living God, He is their/our Theologian, so they know when they are hearing the Voice of Christ or the voice of a non-Christ – Jesus says this is True, ‘that His Sheep know and follow His Voice’, is He being disputed? Francis has exhorted and called for this from all the People of God as the sensus fidelium/fidei, and now that they are doing so and giving witness with the Holy Spirit, against things that are not part of God’s Divine Revelation and Gospel, God in them and they in God, they are in the wrong? This same exhortation of sensus fidelium/fidei Francis as given for the breath and substance of the synods… Also God the Theologian and other theologians in the Church have testified to the Truth of the Gospel and where this unity and expression and how it is absent in francis or those who write or speak for him…. Blessings, Father
here is an example of ‘problems’:
Christ/Holy Spirit, the Theologian: “go and sin no more”, francis the theologian, “go and continue to sin”; Christ: ‘it is not a marriage’, ‘it is not God’s Will’, ‘it is not a grace’; Francis/his writers: ‘it is a marriage’, ‘it is God’s Will’, ‘it is a grace’; Christ/ Holy Spirit [and in Saint John Paul just for one]- ‘go and sin no more living chastely continent as brother and sister for the sake of the children’, Francis: ‘go and continue the adulterous sins for the sake of the children in NOT living in chaste continence’; Christ: ‘repent and in a Holy Confession intend to go and sin no more or no absolution (John 20:23b)’, Francis, ‘do not repent and in Confession do not intend to go and continue sinning, as you must and will receive absolution, it cannot be withheld’.
“Shut Up! Catholics!” “Welby and Greenshields had joined Pope Francis in South Sudan for an ecumenical pilgrimage of peace and reconciliation.”
I am always amazed at how Pope Francis can spew out the hate and disrespect for Catholics who see things differently than himself, while he pours on the sugar coated ecumenical honey to the Protestants who have already left the Church. Does Pope Francis want Catholics he despises to leave the Church so he can finally be nice to them as Protestants?
Yes, yes, but the entangling factor in these deteriorating times, at least in the United States, was that “civil unions” were first advocated as an alternative to possible “gay marriage.” With the assurance (!) that this specific accommodation was not a Fabian half-way house toward a later demand for marriage parity (parody?). A lie…
Not that the limited purpose of “securing property” is illicit, but as a general question: what might “four top theological cardinals” have to say about the non-theological crisis of wisely navigating our post-modern politics and our post-politics modernity?
Not “bitter” here, nor a theologian, but just noticing that prudential judgment is a real can o’ worms these days. We’re reminded of how basketball players on the baseline can be incrementally maneuvered out of bounds without every being fouled–because they do not plant their feet.
During this return flight another CNA reporter added the following in reference to a previous controversy that ‘homosexual sins are not criminal acts’, “According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, people with homosexual tendencies should be treated with respect, and unjust discrimination against them should be avoided, while ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered,’ and ‘under no circumstances can they be approved’” (Pope Francis return flight Rome CNA Courtney Mares 2.5.23).
CNA had the pontiff well covered apparently nothing missed. Although, previous to the flight and this strong affirmation of a moral doctrine – in his speedy response to Fr James Martin’s concern over the sin v criminality issue Francis then said the same, that homosexual acts are sinful. Nonetheless, he made sure to add [straight out of his Amoris Laetitia playbook] that mitigating circumstances could alleviate responsibility even remove it.
Whether the Catechism’s treatment of self abuse 2352 and mitigation provide just reasons that may absolve a gravely sinful act such as sodomy [even the issue of habitual masturbation is not clearly, likewise sufficiently treated in that section] – is not evident.
We cannot disassemble the moral doctrines of the Church on a conceptual theory of circumstantial mitigation. His previous statement does this with the assumption that as treated in Amoris conscience rules rather than the rule. The end result is that people who seek a rationale for their behavior run with this.
I’m done with these in-flight pressers. I’ll look to Catholic Unscripted and Anglican Unscripted for intelligent commentary.
Gilberta, special blessings for sharing these 2 apostolates…. Padre
Silence from CNA re: the pope’s comments on same-sex civil unions and anti-LGBQT laws. Not surprising. They must working overtime to figure out a way to popesplain.
Have to wonder who’s the pot and who’s the kettle in this story. Who’s using BXVI’s death now for “partisan” purposes? Sounds like the classic protesting too much. What a sad and petty display for the putative Vicar of Christ.
I’m suffering from Francis fatigue and ignore anything he says that does not come in the form of an “ex cathedra” written statement on matters of faith and morals that conveys the full weight of infallibility. Everything else is pure political posturing.
If someone did indeed go to Fr. Benedict, then Pope Francis is acknowledging that it happened yet naming the person “partisan”.
Pope Francis hasn’t said who are the “4 top theologians” involved; but again, he offers himself witness to the facts. A dialogue with the devil would be the same!
It could be there is more going on than “1 partisan” and “4 top theologians”? Somehow this all got opened up in public after Fr. Benedict’s passing?
In regular law, anyone can make gifts and settlements. Criminal compacts get voided in law when discovered and that is how it should go.
Homosexuality is an abomination that can’t be legalized, it would be bad law. Making “civil unions” law like “homosexual marriage” is still bad law.
Both are scandals. Why is Pope Francis involving himself in scandalizing the natural institutions of marriage and law; and using God and Roman Church for it?
Why does he feel he needs the support of, for example, the Anglicans? France set a bad example in law (and faith) so “therefore” Pope Francis may promote it?
“Partisanship” has no place in the Catholic Church. The Catechism and Tradition join Scripture to see to it. Those who believe in Church teaching are Catholic; those who don’t believe in Church teaching are not Catholic.
Donna, true, many things have no part with Christ and His Spouse. So, who is the partisan?
Bearing false witness is partisanship with satan, Jesus says, so is it a false or true witness that there is a partisan self-serving by some, what are the specifics – where is the evidence? Who are the ‘some’? Is this a false or rash judgement against the 8th Commandment – who has been broadsided by this statement, is their right to good reputation being violated by this?, it’s scandalous to make such accusations without demonstrating it to be such – none of these things are being Christ or a witness to Him and His Teachings?