Cardinal Bergoglio’s name is already included, as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, in the the growing list of senior bishops and cardinals who have expressed some form of support for same - sex civil unions, but it’s too soon to add his name as Pope Francis. News reports today, based on a recent interview with Corriere della Sera, indicate that may soon change.
Proving yet again that the leader of the western world’s oldest institution is anything but old-fashioned, Pope Francis suggested this week that the Catholic Church could be open to civil unions for people in “diverse situations of cohabitation” – widely assumed to mean same-sex couples.
“Matrimony is between a man and a woman,” said Francis, reaffirming the church’s position on that issue in an interview published Wednesday by the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, and translated into English by the Catholic News Service.
However, he said, moves to “regulate diverse situations of cohabitation (are) driven by the need to regulate economic aspects among persons, as for instance to assure medical care.”
“It is necessary to look at the diverse cases and evaluate them in their variety,” he added.
In the year since he began his papacy on March 13, Francis has signaled an unprecedented willingness to soften the church’s position on a number of social issues. Over the summer, Francis famously declared: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
While the Vatican teaches that gay men and women should be accepted, it classifies homosexual inclinations as an “objective disorder,” and one that could indicate a tendency toward “intrinsic moral evil.” Francis’ remarks were celebrated by LGBT groups as a significant shift in style – and possibly also substance – from those of his predecessors.
The pope has similarly made waves for calling on Catholics to “accompany – not condemn” divorced people, and to scale back the church’s obsession with “small-minded” issues like contraception and abortion. His apparent desire to usher in a new era for the Catholic Church earned him the title of TIME Magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
via MSNBC.
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- Pope Francis: Priorities Make Him Person of the Year (commonwealmagazine.org)
- “Real” US Catholics Love Pope Francis - and Support Gay Marriage. (queeringthechurch.com)
- Pope Francis: Church could support same-sex civil unions (pix11.com)
- Pope Francis Suggests Catholic Church Might Support Civil Unions (towleroad.com)
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