Posted on 03/05/2014 2:19:44 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Pope Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church's opposition to gay marriage on Wednesday, but suggested in a newspaper interview that it could support some types of civil unions.
The Pope reiterated the church's longstanding teaching that "marriage is between a man and a woman." However, he said, "We have to look at different cases and evaluate them in their variety."
States, for instance, justify civil unions as a way to provide economic security to cohabitating couples, the Pope said in a wide-ranging interview published Wednesday in Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily. State-sanctioned unions are thus driven by the need to ensure rights like access to health care, Francis added.
A number of Catholic bishops have supported civil unions for same-sex couples, including Pope Francis when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2010, according to reports in National Catholic Reporter and The New York Time
Pope Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church's opposition to gay marriage on Wednesday, but suggested in a newspaper interview that it could support some types of civil unions.
The Pope reiterated the church's longstanding teaching that "marriage is between a man and a woman." However, he said, "We have to look at different cases and evaluate them in their variety."
States, for instance, justify civil unions as a way to provide economic security to cohabitating couples, the Pope said in a wide-ranging interview published Wednesday in Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily. State-sanctioned unions are thus driven by the need to ensure rights like access to health care, Francis added.
A number of Catholic bishops have supported civil unions for same-sex couples, including Pope Francis when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2010, according to reports in National Catholic Reporter and The New York Time.
(Excerpt) Read more at religion.blogs.cnn.com ...
Yeah, yeah, yeah. “Media lies”. “Don’t take the bait.”
Blah. Blah. Blah. I’ve said earlier that a few distortions of the Pope’s own words is to be expected. But come on. This guys opens mouth-inserts foot as often as Joe Biden.
There are some 4-5 threads on this subject already today. Look at them. And look at the number of Catholic Freepers who - while trying to dance nicely because it is their church - are still aghast at what their Holy Father has done.
Maybe, but like you said he must clarify this or it shall be taken exactly as written.
As I am not Catholic and don’t believe in your theology where it pertains to the Catholic church, it really doesn’t effect me -it’s just a shocking statement!
this will not go well for the catholic church.
Hope you’re right!
Answer:
Marriage is between a man and a woman. Secular states want to justify civil unions to regulate different situations of cohabitation, pushed by the demand to regulate economic aspects between persons, such as ensuring health care. It is about pacts of cohabitating of various natures, of which I wouldn’t know how to list the different ways. One needs to see the different cases and evaluate them in their variety.
Makes it sound like they are roommates. Just sharing groceries, utilities, and a roof over their heads.
I hope the Pontiff is wise enough to recognize how the left will take a centimeter and pressure for a mile.
I also hope he isn't willing to reinterpret scripture in order to simply accommodate homosexual attraction and lust.
The article says the Pope “suggested.” More likely is that the reporter inferred, not that the Pope implied.
From this story we don’t know that the Pope used the word “support,” or any equivalent in any translation. I’m inclined to take this whole story with a substantial grain of salt.
I merely posted his exact quote.
This Pope is hardly my favorite and I’ve made no secret about that.
He doesn’t speak English and that’s already gotten him into trouble.
The secular American press are all too happy to make him into some kind of idiot liberal, open to changing the Church, which I’m sure he’s not.
Civil unions could be any sort of connection, for legal purposes. It could be a mother and son, two brothers, or two sisters. It could have absolutely NOTHING to do with sexual relations, and that’s probably why most homosexual activists didn’t like the idea. They wanted MARRIAGE, because they saw that as a way to weaken marriage overall. Civil unions wouldn’t accomplish that.
This excuse for a Pope is fundamentally transforming the Catholic church the way Obama is transforming America.
Francis is the Jocelyn Elders of Popes that is somehow always misunderstood.
Even then they would never be satisfied.
Soros is affiliated with NCR, as in National Catholic Register?? Or am I misunderstanding your statement?
With each pronouncement on social and political issues Pope Francis makes the more I'm inclined to believe Pope Benedict was ousted. It is not a far stretch, in my mind at least, to see similarities between what President Obama is doing to our Constitutional system and what Pope Francis is doing to the Catholic Church................
Did the Popey happen to mention whether any of that would affect the salvation of any of those lost souls?
Why is the MSM always doubted to have gotten it right when reporting on conservatives at the free republic and always assumed to have gotten it right when spinning what the Pope says into something he didn’t say ?
That is it. This guy is basically reverend Jeremiah Wright dressed in a white robe. This always was the fundamental weakness of the Catholic faith, as a hierarchical organization the Church is only as good as the current Pope. This one is a social gospel Marxist. God have mercy.
Onyx, I read those words and saw nothing in them to even faintly hint at “support” for civil unions of same sex individuals. Francis is not stupid. The question he is asked is clearly hinting at the idea of same sex unions, otherwise there would be no mention of “up to what point,” as if to say, where would the Catholic church draw the line. Francis hedges his answer in the vague generality that civil unions can exist for many reasons, but are especially tied to economic considerations, and therefore (I interject my interpretation here) there is nothing wrong with civil unions in the abstract, which is logically true.
However, it is an unfortunate dodge of the real question, because it ignores the fact that here in the US, “civil union” can never be thought of as a legal abstraction. To us it has become short-hand for state-recognized same sex cohabitation. Look at all the responses on this thread. That’s what folks are hearing, even though its not what he,said. It is a classic cultural communication snafu, and it should be addressed and remediated as soon as possible.
Full disclisure: I am not Catholic nor do I agree with substantial components of Catholic teaching. But everyone deserves a fair hearing, including Francis.
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