Even as he supported civil unions, then, Francis, like his predecessors, made a distinction between gay people good and the way that they express passion and love not good. His support is an incremental change, at most. Francis has been described in turn as a revolutionary Pope, a Latin American socialist, and a Trump-style disrupter.
In fact, he is an incrementalist, who works in small ways, with gestures and enigmatic pronouncements. There are good reasons for him to act incrementally, and offhandedly, rather than directly.
For one thing, his efforts to advance bold objectives through the formal structures of the papacy—on climate change, immigration, or income inequality—have met with something less than acclamation from the Catholic populace.
The questions of human sexuality are no less complex than those of the economy or the environment. But it may be that, in supporting those unions, he is acknowledging that the Church needs to revise its understanding of gay people.
Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, D. At some point, the Church is going to have to address it all directly, through an encyclical letter, or a synod, or even an ecumenical council on the human person—a Vatican III, which would bring the Church into the twenty-first century as Vatican II brought it, belatedly, into the twentieth. He will turn eighty-four in December. A council on the human person is likely a project for a successor.
Meanwhile, his incrementalist approach makes sense only if he keeps Catholicism moving in the right direction, toward recognizing gay people in the ways that they recognize themselves. It may be stretching credulity to see his remarks in support of same-sex civil unions as a means to the eventual end of the full embrace of gay people.
Last year the pontiff said in a documentary by Evgeny Afineevsky that "homosexual people have a right to be in a family Nobody should be thrown out or made miserable over it". The Vatican later attempted to clarify the comments saying they were taken out of context and did not indicate support for same-sex marriage. Image source, Getty Images. Pope Francis indicates support for same-sex civil unions. In Pope Francis famously broke with doctrinal tradition, saying: "Who am I to judge gay people?
What has the reaction been? The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. View original tweet on Twitter. Read More. The decision is a setback for Catholics who had hoped the institution would modernize its approach to homosexuality. Dozens of countries, include many in western Europe, have legalized same-sex marriages, and the Church's reticence to embrace LGBTQ people has long held the potential to alienate it from younger followers.
Vatican says Pope's comments on same-sex civil unions were taken out of context. The statement says that gays and lesbians, as individuals, may receive a blessing if they live according to Church teaching. But blessing same-sex unions, the Vatican said, would send a sign that the Catholic Church approves and encourages "a choice and a way of life that cannot be recognized as objectively ordered to the revealed plans of God. The statement was issued as a "response" to questions from pastors and the faithful on the question.
In a commentary provided with the Monday statement, the Vatican insisted that "the negative judgment on the blessing of unions of persons of the same sex does not imply a judgment on persons. The decision will alarm those who pinned their hopes of a more open and progressive Catholic leadership on the reformist Pope. Last year, it seemed that Francis had advocated for civil union laws for same-sex couples when he gave an interview for a documentary.
They're children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable over it," the Pope said, adding: "What we have to create is a civil union law.
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