Daily US Times: Pope Francis has said in a documentary directed by Evgeny Afineevsky that he thinks same-sex couples should be allowed to have “civil unions”.
He made the comments, which observers say are his clearest remarks yet on gay relationships. The film premiered on Wednesday.
“Homosexual people have a right to be in a family,” the Pope said in the film, that is about his life and work.
“They are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or made miserable over it.”
What we have to create is a civil union law, he said, adding that ”that way they are legally covered.”
Pope Francis added that he “stood up for that”, apparently referring to his time as Archbishop of Buenos Aires when, although opposing same-sex marriages in law, he supported some legal protections for same-sex couples.
The film Francesco, premiered as part of the Rome Film Festival.
As well as the his comments on civil unions, the film also shows him encouraging two gay men to attend church with their three children.
Austen Ivereigh, Pope Francis’s biographer, told the BBC he was “not surprised” by the latest comments.
Mr Ivereigh said: “This was his position as Archbishop of Buenos Aires.”
“He was always opposed to marriage being for same-sex couples. But he believed the church should advocate for a civil union law for gay couples to give them legal protection,” he added.
Gay relationships are described to as “deviant behaviour” under current Catholic doctrine.
The Vatican’s doctrinal body, said in 2003 that “respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions”.
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