In Francesco, a new biographical documentary, Pope Francis speaks out in favor of homosexual “civil unions.” He says, “They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it. What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered.” Francis, who was elected pope in 2013, spoke strongly against the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2010 when he was the cardinal of Buenos Aires. He called it “a move of the father of lies who wishes to confuse and deceive the children of God” (National Catholic Register, Jul. 8, 2010). The pope is now disregarding the Catholic Church’s own official teaching, which says, “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. Under no circumstances can they be approved” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, approved by Pope John Paul II, second edition, 1997, # 2357). In 2003, the Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated, “The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions” (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons”). Ratzinger was Pope Benedict XVI from 2006-2013 and is currently “pope emeritus.”
(Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)