The Vatican has come out to clarify Pope Francis’ comments, which endorsed same-sex civil unions in a documentary that aired last month, saying that they were taken out of context. The Pope had made the comment, which had gone viral after its release, in a documentary, Francesco, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival on October, 21.
The Vatican secretariat of state sent a letter on October 30 to papal representatives (nuncios) around the world stating that the comments by Pope Francis in the documentary directed by Evgeny Afineevsky, Francesco, were taken out of context.
“More than a year ago, during an interview, Pope Francis answered two different questions at two different times that, in the aforementioned documentary, were edited and published as a single answer without the proper contextualization, which has led to confusion,” the letter, seen and verified by CNN, says. “It is clear that Pope Francis was referring to certain provisions made by states, and certainly not to the doctrine of the Church, which he has reaffirmed numerous times over the years.”
The letter also added that the comments by the pope that “Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They are children of God and have a right to a family,” were referring to the fact that “a son or daughter with a homosexual orientation should never be discriminated against within the family.”
According to the NBC, In the Televisa interview, Francis also insisted that he always maintained Catholic doctrine and said there was an “incongruity” for the Catholic Church as far as “homosexual marriage” is concerned. The documentary eliminated that context.
Although the director told the Associated Press that he had personally interviewed the Pope for his documentary, journalists eventually learned that the footage of the Pope interview was taken from a 2019 Mexico Televisa interview. The Pope’s comments on civil unions were not aired in the initial Televisa interview.
The Vatican guidance insists that Francis wasn’t contradicting church doctrine. But it doesn’t explain how his support for extending Argentine legal protections to gay couples in 2010 could be squared with the 2003 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which says “the principles of respect and non-discrimination cannot be invoked to support legal recognition of homosexual unions, the NBC reports.
