Pope Francis has endorsed same-sex civil unions for the first time since taking the papal role.
The approval came midway through a feature-length documentary, titled Francesco, which had its premiere at the Rome Film Festival earlier today.
The film delves into issues Francis cares about most, including the environment, poverty, migration, racial and income inequality, and the people most affected by discrimination.
‘Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable over it,’ Francis said in one of his sit-down interviews for the film.
‘What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.’
The Pope’s remarks will come as a shock to millions of Roman Catholics who have long followed the doctrine that gay relationships are sinful and accepted the Church’s stand against the worldwide advance of gay rights.
Pope Francis (pictured earlier today) has endorsed same-sex civil unions for the first time since taking the papal role
Francis’s predecessors, including Benedict XVI and John Paul II, condemned same-sex marriage during their papal tenure.
Francis himself had opposed legislation to approve same-sex marriages in Argentina when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires a decade ago – but had supported some kind of legal protection for the rights of gay couples at the time.
But shortly after becoming Pope, he said of gay people that ‘we must be brothers’.
He added: ‘If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge him?’
Papal biographer Austen Ivereigh told Reuters that the pope’s comments in the film were some of the clearest language the pontiff has used on the subject since his election in 2013.
The pope, who early in his papacy made the now-famous ‘Who am I to judge?’ remark about homosexuals trying to live a Christian life, spoke in a section of the film about Andrea Rubera, a gay man who with his partner adopted three children.
Rubera says in the film that he went to a morning Mass the pope said in his Vatican residence and gave him a letter explaining his situation.
He told the pope that he and his partner wanted to bring the children up as Catholics in the local parish but did not want to cause any trauma for the children. It was not clear in which country Rubera lives.
Rubera said the pope telephoned him several days later, telling him he thought the letter was ‘beautiful’ and urging the couple to introduce their children to the parish but to be ready for opposition.
‘His message and his advice was really useful because we did exactly what he told us. It’s the third year that they (the children) are on a spiritual path in the parish,’ Rubera says in the film.
‘He didn’t mention what was his opinion about my family so (I think) he is following the doctrine on this point but the attitude towards people has massively changed,’ he said.
Oscar-nominated director Evgeny Afineevsky was given remarkable access to cardinals, the Vatican television archives and the pope himself to create the piece.
He said he negotiated his way in through persistence, and deliveries of Argentine mate tea and Alfajores cookies that he got to the pope via some well-connected Argentines in Rome.
The premiere comes after the Pope praised a breastfeeding mother as he reverted to going without a coronavirus face mask during the Vatican general audience today
Pope Francis praised Switzerland’s Valentina Frey at the start of his Vatican general audience in the the Paul VI hall while she breastfed her daughter Charlotte Katharina
The premiere comes after the Pope praised a breastfeeding mother as he reverted to going without a coronavirus face mask during the Vatican general audience earlier today.
Francis mentioned Switzerland’s Valentina Frey at the start of the audience in the Paul VI hall while she breastfed her daughter Charlotte Katharina.
He said the act was an example of ‘tenderness’ and ‘beauty’ before continuing his speech.
The Pope said: ‘Something caught my attention while the readers were reciting the Biblical passages there was the baby over there that was crying.
‘And I was looking at the mother.
‘Who was nursing the baby and comforting her.
The Pope said: I was looking at the mother. Who was nursing the baby and comforting her and I was thinking about how God is like this with us. How he often tries to comfort us and nurse us’
The Pope reverted to going without a coronavirus face mask while addressing the audience in the Vatican City, Rome, Italy, today
The Pope did not wear a face mask for the duration of the audience again or when he greeted a half-dozen mask-less bishops at the end
‘I was thinking about how God is like this with us. How he often tries to comfort us and nurse us.
‘It is a beautiful image when we see this happening in church and we hear a baby crying and we see a mother’s tenderness.
‘We thank her for her witness.
‘The tenderness of a mother is a symbol of God’s tenderness with us.
‘Never silence a baby in church because that is the voice that draws God’s tenderness. Thank you for you witness.’
The Pope did not wear a face mask for the duration of the audience again or when he greeted a half-dozen mask-less bishops at the end.
He shook hands and leaned in to chat privately with each one.
While the clerics wore masks while seated during the audience, all but one took his mask off to speak to the pope.
Only one kept it on, and by the end of his tete-a-tete with Francis, had lowered it under his chin.
Vatican regulations now require face masks to be worn indoors and out where distancing can’t be ‘always guaranteed’.
While the clerics wore masks while seated during the audience, all but one took his mask off to speak to the pope
Francis explained to the audience why he didn’t plunge into the crowd at the start of the audience as he usually would do
He said: ‘I’m sorry for this, but it’s for your own safety. Rather than get close to you, shake your hands and greet you, I greet you from far away’
The Vatican hasn’t responded to questions about why the pope wasn’t following either Vatican regulations or basic public health measures to prevent Covid-19.
Francis explained to the audience why he didn’t plunge into the crowd at the start of the audience as he usually would do.
But he said his distance from them was for their own well-being, to prevent crowds from forming around him.
He said: ‘I’m sorry for this, but it’s for your own safety. Rather than get close to you, shake your hands and greet you, I greet you from far away.
‘But know that I’m close to you with my heart.’
He didn’t address his decision to forego wearing a mask.
Francis did, however, wear a white face mask throughout an interreligious prayer service in downtown Rome yesterday, removing it only to speak.
The Pope said his distance from them was for their own well-being, to prevent crowds from forming around him
Clergymen laugh as Pope Francis attends the general audience, in the San Damaso courtyard, Vatican City
He had previously only been seen wearing one once before as he entered and exited his car in a Vatican courtyard on September 9.
Italian law requires masks indoors and out.
At 83 and with part of a lung removed when he was in his 20s due to illness, the pope would be at high risk for COVID-19 complications.
He has urged the faithful to comply with government mandates to protect public health.
Francis wore a white face mask throughout an interreligious prayer service in in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in downtown Rome yesterday, removing it only to speak
He had previously only been seen wearing one once before as he entered and exited his car in a Vatican courtyard on September 9
In the past week, 11 Swiss Guards and a resident of the hotel where Francis lives have tested positive.
In Italy, coronavirus cases are surging, with the Lazio region around Vatican City among the hardest hit.
Lazio has more people hospitalised and in intensive care than any other region except Italy’s most populous and hardest-hit region, Lombardy.
Inside the Vatican auditorium Wednesday, the crowd wore masks as did the Swiss Guards. But Francis and his two aides didn’t.
