Vatican Clarification Of Pope Francis 'Statement Of Homosexual Civilians' Union: Taken Out Of Context

Pope Francis. (Photo: Twitter @Pontifex)

JAKARTA - The Vatican has clarified Pope Francis' comments in favor of same-sex marriage. The Vatican said the Pope's comments were taken out of context.

In a letter distributed to papal representatives around the world on October 30, the Vatican said two comments Pope Francis made in the film Francesco were out of context. The letter first spread on the Facebook page of the Vatican Ambassador to Mexico on Sunday November 1.

"Over a year ago, during an interview, Pope Francis answered two different questions at two different times which, in the documentary, were edited and published as a single answer without proper contextualization and caused confusion," the letter said.

In the film Francesco, the Pope comments, "What we need is a law of civil unity." However, the Vatican has clarified that the Pope is actually speaking out of himself against Argentina's same-sex marriage law ten years ago, when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

In that context, the Vatican letter claims, "the Pope has spoken of the rights of these people to certain legal protections," it wrote. The statement is not about same-sex marriage.

"It is clear that Pope Francis is referring to certain provisions made by the state, and certainly not to Church doctrine, which he has reiterated time and time again over the years," the letter explained.

In addition, in the film directed by Russian-born Evgeny Afineevsky, the Pope also said: "Homosexuals have the right to be part of the family. They are God's children and have the right to have a family."

The Pope's statement has been interpreted by some as support for same-sex couples who form families. But the Vatican letter explained, the Pope was talking about: "A son or daughter with a homosexual orientation should not be discriminated against in the family."

Cut off context?

After the film's premiere in Rome on October 21, Afineevsky said he had personally interviewed Pope Francis for his documentary. However, it turned out that journalists found the footage of Pope Francis' interview was actually taken from a Mexican television interview that was broadcast in 2019.

There was no Pope commenting on the civil union of homosexuality. Even so, he was not against the homosexual civil union either.

After Pope Francis 'statement was circulated, Pastor James Martin, the Jesuit who has long struggled to build relationships with gays in the church praised Pope Francis' statement. He called it a "major advance regarding church support for LGBT people."

But Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island has demanded clarification from Pope Francis. Thomas even called Pope Francis' statements "clearly at odds with the church's old teaching on same-sex unity" because the Church cannot support the acceptance of relationships that are objectively immoral, he said.