The Vatican says Pope Francis’ comments on gay civil unions were
taken out of context in a documentary that spliced together parts
of an old interview, but it still confirms Francis’ belief that gay
couples should enjoy legal protections
![image](/2020/10/lawbreedadvrt.jpg")
![image](/2020/10/lawreport.jpg")
ROME — The Vatican says Pope Francis[1]’ comments
on gay civil unions were taken out of context in a documentary that
spliced together parts of an old interview, but still confirmed
Francis’ belief that gay couples should enjoy legal
protections.
![image](/2020/10/NWLRland.jpg")
The Vatican secretariat of state issued guidance to ambassadors
to explain the uproar that Francis’ comments created following the
Oct. 21 premiere of the film “Francesco,” at the Rome Film
Festival. The Vatican nuncio to Mexico[2],
Archbishop Franco Coppola, posted the unsigned guidance on his
Facebook page Sunday.
In it, the Vatican confirmed that Francis was referring to his
position in 2010 when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires and
strongly opposed moves to allow same-sex marriage. Instead, he
favored extending legal protections to gay couples under what is
understood in Argentina as a civil union law.
While Francis was known to have taken that position privately,
he had never articulated his support while as pope. As a result,
the comments made headlines, primarily because the Vatican’s
doctrine office in 2003 issued a document prohibiting such
endorsement. The document, signed by Francis’ predecessor as pope,
says the church’s support for gay people “cannot lead in any way to
approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of
homosexual unions.”
The recent uproar gained even more attention because it turned
out director Evgeny Afineevsky misled journalists by claiming
Francis had made the comments to him in a new interview. A week
before the premiere, when he was asked about the civil union
comments, Afineevsky told The Associated Press that he had two
on-camera interviews with the pope. In comments to journalists
after the premiere, he claimed that the civil union footage came
from an interview with the pope with a translator present.
It turned out, Francis’ comments were apparently taken from a
May 2019 interview with Mexican broadcaster Televisa that were
never broadcast. The Vatican hasn’t confirmed or denied reports by
sources in Mexico that the Vatican cut the quote from the footage
it provided to Televisa after the interview, which was filmed with
Vatican cameras.
Afineevsky apparently was given access to the original, uncut
footage in the Vatican archives.
The guidance issued by the secretariat of state doesn’t address
the issue of the cut quote or that it came from the Televisa
interview. It says only that it was from a 2019 interview and that
the comments used in the documentary spliced together parts of two
different responses in a way that removed crucial 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 proper contextualization, which has led to
confusion,” said the guidance posted by Coppola.
In the film, Afineevsky recounts the story of Andrea Rubera, a
married gay Catholic who wrote Francis asking for his advice about
bringing into the church his three young children with his
husband.
It was an anguished question, given that the Catholic Church
teaches that gay people must be treated with dignity and respect
but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” The church
also holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and
woman, and as a result, gay marriage[3] is
unacceptable.
In the end, Rubera recounts how Francis urged him to approach
his parish transparently and bring the children up in the faith,
which he did. After the anecdote ends, the film cuts to Francis’
comments from the Televisa interview.
“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are
children of God,” Francis said. “You can’t kick someone out of a
family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to
have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”
Francis’ comments about gays having the right to be in a family
referred to parents with gay children, and the need for them to not
kick their children out or discriminate against them, the Vatican
guidance said.
Francis was not endorsing the right of gay couples to adopt
children, even though the placement of the quote right after Rubera
told his story made it seem that Francis was.
The pope’s comments about gay civil unions came from a different
part of the Televisa interview and included several caveats that
were not included in the film.
In the Televisa interview, Francis made clear he was explaining
his position about the unique case in Buenos Aires 10 years ago, as
opposed to Rubera’s situation or gay marriage[4] as a
whole.
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.
The Televisa footage is available online, and includes an
awkward cut right after Francis spoke about the “incongruity” of
homosexual marriage. Presumably, that is where he segued into his
position as archbishop in favoring extending legal protections to
gay couples.
Neither the Vatican nor Afineevsky have responded to repeated
questions about the cut quote or its origin.
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.”
Culled from https://abcnews.go.com
The Vatican says Pope Francis’ comments on gay civil unions were
taken out of context in a documentary that spliced together parts
of an old interview, but it still confirms Francis’ belief that gay
couples should enjoy legal protections
ROME — The Vatican says Pope Francis[1]’ comments
on gay civil unions were taken out of context in a documentary that
spliced together parts of an old interview, but still confirmed
Francis’ belief that gay couples should enjoy legal
protections.
The Vatican secretariat of state issued guidance to ambassadors
to explain the uproar that Francis’ comments created following the
Oct. 21 premiere of the film “Francesco,” at the Rome Film
Festival. The Vatican nuncio to Mexico[2],
Archbishop Franco Coppola, posted the unsigned guidance on his
Facebook page Sunday.
In it, the Vatican confirmed that Francis was referring to his
position in 2010 when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires and
strongly opposed moves to allow same-sex marriage. Instead, he
favored extending legal protections to gay couples under what is
understood in Argentina as a civil union law.
While Francis was known to have taken that position privately,
he had never articulated his support while as pope. As a result,
the comments made headlines, primarily because the Vatican’s
doctrine office in 2003 issued a document prohibiting such
endorsement. The document, signed by Francis’ predecessor as pope,
says the church’s support for gay people “cannot lead in any way to
approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of
homosexual unions.”
The recent uproar gained even more attention because it turned
out director Evgeny Afineevsky misled journalists by claiming
Francis had made the comments to him in a new interview. A week
before the premiere, when he was asked about the civil union
comments, Afineevsky told The Associated Press that he had two
on-camera interviews with the pope. In comments to journalists
after the premiere, he claimed that the civil union footage came
from an interview with the pope with a translator present.
It turned out, Francis’ comments were apparently taken from a
May 2019 interview with Mexican broadcaster Televisa that were
never broadcast. The Vatican hasn’t confirmed or denied reports by
sources in Mexico that the Vatican cut the quote from the footage
it provided to Televisa after the interview, which was filmed with
Vatican cameras.
Afineevsky apparently was given access to the original, uncut
footage in the Vatican archives.
The guidance issued by the secretariat of state doesn’t address
the issue of the cut quote or that it came from the Televisa
interview. It says only that it was from a 2019 interview and that
the comments used in the documentary spliced together parts of two
different responses in a way that removed crucial 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 proper contextualization, which has led to
confusion,” said the guidance posted by Coppola.
In the film, Afineevsky recounts the story of Andrea Rubera, a
married gay Catholic who wrote Francis asking for his advice about
bringing into the church his three young children with his
husband.
It was an anguished question, given that the Catholic Church
teaches that gay people must be treated with dignity and respect
but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” The church
also holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and
woman, and as a result, gay marriage[3] is
unacceptable.
In the end, Rubera recounts how Francis urged him to approach
his parish transparently and bring the children up in the faith,
which he did. After the anecdote ends, the film cuts to Francis’
comments from the Televisa interview.
“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are
children of God,” Francis said. “You can’t kick someone out of a
family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to
have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”
Francis’ comments about gays having the right to be in a family
referred to parents with gay children, and the need for them to not
kick their children out or discriminate against them, the Vatican
guidance said.
Francis was not endorsing the right of gay couples to adopt
children, even though the placement of the quote right after Rubera
told his story made it seem that Francis was.
The pope’s comments about gay civil unions came from a different
part of the Televisa interview and included several caveats that
were not included in the film.
In the Televisa interview, Francis made clear he was explaining
his position about the unique case in Buenos Aires 10 years ago, as
opposed to Rubera’s situation or gay marriage[4] as a
whole.
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.
The Televisa footage is available online, and includes an
awkward cut right after Francis spoke about the “incongruity” of
homosexual marriage. Presumably, that is where he segued into his
position as archbishop in favoring extending legal protections to
gay couples.
Neither the Vatican nor Afineevsky have responded to repeated
questions about the cut quote or its origin.
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.”
Culled from https://abcnews.go.com