Pope Francis endorsed same-sex civil unions for the first time as pontiff when he was being interviewed for the feature-length documentary “Francesco,” which premiered Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the Rome Film Festival.
While a number of Southern California Catholics were not surprised by the pope’s compassionate stance toward the LGBTQ community, many also recognized that his comments, significant as they are, would not change the church’s doctrine, which views the sacrament of marriage as the union between a man and a woman.
The papal endorsement to same-sex civil unions came midway through the film that delves into issues Francis cares about most, including the environment, poverty, migration, racial and income inequality, and the people most affected by discrimination.
Focus on inclusion
“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God,” Francis said in one of his sit-down interviews for the film. “You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”
In one sense, it is not surprising to hear the pope’s views because he has always had a focus on inclusiveness in the church, said John Andrews, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino.
“But, it’s the first time, as a pope, that he is specifically saying that there should be legal protections for civil unions, which is new and significant,” Andrews said. “But, what he’s saying doesn’t have any bearing on the sacrament of marriage within the church. That’s a whole different ball game than a civil protection.”
The Roman Catholic Church’s teaching maintains that the LGBT community must be treated with dignity and respect, but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” A 2003 document from the Vatican’s doctrine office stated that the church’s respect for gays “cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.” That document was signed by the then-prefect of the office, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, Francis’s predecessor.
One of the main characters in the documentary “Francesco” is Juan Carlos Cruz, the Chilean survivor of clergy sexual abuse whom Francis initially discredited during a 2018 visit to Chile. The pope not only acknowledged his mistake later, but assured Cruz that God made him gay and loves him the way he is. Cruz tells his story throughout the film chronicling Francis’s evolution on understanding sexual abuse and documenting the pontiff’s views on gay people.
Same-sex marriage stance
Francis’s 2016 papal encyclical titled Amoris Laetitia (the Joy of Love) states that “as for the proposals to place unions between homosexual persons on the same level as marriage, there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.” An encyclical is considered to be one of the highest forms of communication from the pope and typically clarifies or amplifies certain aspects of Catholic teaching.
“In Amoris Laetetia the pope comes out against same-sex marriage,” said Father Thomas Rausch, professor emeritus of Catholic theology at Loyola Marymount University. “That doesn’t mean he’s against gay people. It’s two different issues.”
Also, a pope cannot change doctrine all on his own, Rausch said.
“A doctrinal change must come from the whole church with input from theologians and all the bishops,” he said. “The Catholic Church is not a dictatorship.”
A Pew survey found that more than half of Catholics in the United States support same-sex marriage. Also, over the past five years, countries that are primarily Catholic such as Ireland, Colombia, Malta and Austria, legalized same-sex marriage.
Call for inclusiveness
The Catholic LGBT community has always appreciated Francis’s compassion and his spirit of inclusion, said Michael Rademacher, president of Dignity Los Angeles, a lay Catholic organization, which seeks to reform the Catholic Church’s stance on LGBT issues and has its own chapel in Highland Park.
“As a gay man, I’ve been in a long-term relationship for 45 years, but I’ve never received a blessing from my church and I don’t expect that to happen in my lifetime,” Rademacher said. “The pope’s words are just the first step in a long journey to get there.”
Bernard Prat of Newport Beach, a French native who was raised Catholic, says his brother, a gay man, left Catholicism and became a Protestant because he did not feel welcomed in the Catholic Church.
“I love how Pope Francis always reminds us with his words that we are all children of Christ,” Prat said. “Gay people are born the way they are and it is our duty to accept them as God’s children. I’d like to see the day when the Catholic Church accepts same-sex marriage. It’ll happen, but step by step.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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