[ad_1]
After Pope Francis appeared to support same-sex civil unions, the Vatican fails to respond to comments that caught the highest levels of the Catholic Church by surprise.
(Read also: LGBT activists speak out on Pope Francis’ statements).
The Vatican’s vast communications network, which includes radio, television and a newspaper, has been kept silent. That shows how the entire media operation built around the Pope was also kept in the dark about his change of opinion. His own official Twitter feed doesn’t mention it.
The pope’s spokesman has not returned repeated calls or emails.
Meanwhile, the press office tries to make an official statement.
Of interest: The nice reaction of a girl in a church where she received a blessing
The documentary by filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky chronicles the approach of the Pope Francisco to urgent social problems. What everyone wants to know is whether Francisco was serious when he indicated that same-sex couples should enjoy legal protection, just like heterosexuals united in marriage.
In Catholicism this has long been considered taboo.
In an interview included in the documentary Francesco, which premiered on Wednesday at the Rome Film Festival, the Pope appeared to break with the long-standing conservatism of the Catholic Church when it comes to LGBTI rights.
“They are children of God and they have the right to have a family. No one should be expelled or feel miserable because of it,” he said in Spanish.
“What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are covered legally. I defended that.”
Also: The youtuber priest appointed bishop by Pope Francis
Such a change in policy would normally come in the form of a papal document, like an encyclical, not a movie. Now questions arise about when
Francisco made the comments for the first time.
The interview that appears in the documentary is identical to the one he gave to the Mexican network Televisa in 2019. But when it aired, it did not include his comments on civil unions.
Bloomberg
