Vatican Clarifies The Pope’s Comments On Same Sex Civil Unions

The Vatican says Pope Francis’ comments on same-sex civil unions in a documentary were taken out of context.

On October 30, a letter was sent by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State to nuncios or papal representatives worldwide regarding the comments. The letter stated that two remarks made by the Pope in Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary “Francisco” were misrepresented in the film.

According to CNN, the letter was first posted on the Facebook page of Archbishop Franco Coppola, the nuncio to Mexico.

“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 the proper contextualization, which has led to confusion,” the letter says.

Comments were presented in a documentary in a way that made it seem the Pope was endorsing civil unions for same-sex couples. 

It turns out, Francis was referring to his position when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires ten years ago. Francis advocated for same-sex civil unions as an alternative when Argentina was discussing whether to legalize same-sex marriage. He was not suggesting that the Church change its doctrine regarding same-sex marriage. 

The Vatican gave Afineevsky access to uncut footage from the archives of a 2019 interview the Pope had with Televisa. Following the film’s premiere, the director told the Associated Press the controversial comments were made directly to him in an interview. 

It was later discovered that he used footage from the 2019 Televisa interview. The Pope’s comments were not aired when broadcasted initially.

Francis has made previously made comments to suggest that he does not oppose same-sex civil unions. Francis’ personal opinion diverges from church doctrine and from that of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. Pope Benedict notoriously called homosexuality “an intrinsic moral evil” in a letter to Bishops.