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© Associated Press
Pope Francis has called for the authorization of “civil unions” of same-sex couples, a surprising position given the conservative views of the Catholic Church. The Pope’s speech is part of a documentary in the context of spiritual care for LGBT people.
“Homosexuals have the right to be part of the family. They are children of God and they have the right to have a family. No one should be excommunicated or made suffer for it,” he said, quoted by the Catholic News Agency. “A law on civil unions must be created. That way, they will be legally protected. I have supported it.”
In 2010, while he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, the Pope opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage. According to his biographer Sergio Rubin, he supported civil unions as an alternative. In his book On Heaven and Earth, co-authored with an Argentine rabbi, Pope Francis called the laws that “assimilate” homosexual relationships in marriage “anthropological regression” and expressed concern that if same-sex couples they have the right to adopt, “there may be Every person needs a father and a mother to help them shape their identity.”
In 2014, the Holy See press office responded to questions from the media that the Pope would not take a position on the right of homosexuals to civil unions, but would instead adhere to the church’s position on marriage.
In 2003, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Curia declared that “respect for homosexual persons can in no way lead to the approval of homosexual conduct or the legal recognition of homosexual unions.”
Gay unions do not fulfill, even by a distant analogy, the purpose of marriage and family, which deserve special recognition. On the contrary, there are good reasons to believe that these alliances are detrimental to the proper development of human society, especially if their influence increases, ”said the congregation, which watches over and defends Catholic doctrine.
The documentary is called Francesco and it is dedicated to the life and ministry of the Pope. It premiered today at the Rome Film Festival. The director is Evgeniy Afineevski.
Afineevsky began work on the film in 2018 and had unprecedented access to the Pope until filming was completed in June this year. Born in Russia but working in the United States, in 2015 he was nominated for an Oscar and an Emmy for his film Winter on Fire, dedicated to the protests in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014.
Details are expected later at www.dnevnik.bg.
