Pope Francis’ recent comments expressing support of same-sex civil unions are only earth-shaking to those who tend to exaggerate the prominence of the issue in the context of church teachings. In fact, neither the Catholic Church in earlier eras, nor the text of the Bible itself, gives this topic the obsessive focus that too many believers today ascribe to it. Francis’ live-and-let-live approach is likely to broaden the church’s appeal in the modern world — something it needs to do.
The documentary “Francesco,” released at the Rome Film Festival Wednesday, features the pontiff declaring, “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God.” He says he supports the concept of a “civil union law” within the church.
This doesn’t come out of nowhere. As far back as 2010, when Francis was cardinal archbishop for Buenos Aires, he was supportive of efforts in Argentina to allow legal rights for gay couples. In 2013, he shocked the global media by declaring: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Pope Francis’ latest comments help bring the church in line with not only the modern world but with the better aspects of Christianity itself.
Still, Francis’ latest comments are being presented by both supporters and critics as a seismic event. It seems clearer than ever that he intends to reform the official anti-gay intolerance that has been too often embraced by the church hierarchy. A report in The New York Times that the Vatican initially cut Francis’ comments about civil unions from the documentary footage demonstrates how tall an order that might be.
Francis reportedly remains steadfastly opposed to any suggestion the church embraces formal marriage between same-sex couples. While church doctrine has generally but inconsistently discouraged same-sex relationships over the centuries, it is more explicit about marriage, defining it as being between one man and one woman.
Where Francis breaks new ground is in his openness to supporting legal protections for same-sex couples via civil unions — a position that isn’t explicitly barred by church doctrine but that had been rejected by Francis’ modern predecessors. It remains to be seen whether the world’s gay Catholics will stake out the position that Americans ultimately did in secular law: that legal protections aren’t enough and that the full, symbolic recognition of formal marriage is crucial.
