Pope Francis has endorsed same-sex civil unions for the first time since taking the papal role.
The approval came midway through a feature-length documentary, titled Francesco, which had its premiere at the Rome Film Festival earlier today.
The film delves into issues Francis cares about most, including the environment, poverty, migration, racial and income inequality, and the people most affected by discrimination.
‘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.
‘What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.’
Pope Francis (pictured earlier today) has endorsed same-sex civil unions for the first time since taking the papal role
While serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis endorsed civil unions for gay couples as an alternative to same-sex marriages.
However, he had never come out publicly in favor of civil unions as pope until now.
Director Evgeny Afineevsky had remarkable access to cardinals, the Vatican television archives and the pope himself.
He said he negotiated his way in through persistence, and deliveries of Argentine mate tea and Alfajores cookies that he got to the pope via some well-connected Argentines in Rome.
The premiere comes after the Pope praised a breastfeeding mother as he reverted to going without a coronavirus face mask during the Vatican general audience today.
The premiere comes after the Pope praised a breastfeeding mother as he reverted to going without a coronavirus face mask during the Vatican general audience today
Pope Francis praised Switzerland’s Valentina Frey at the start of his Vatican general audience in the the Paul VI hall while she breastfed her daughter Charlotte Katharina
Francis mentioned Switzerland’s Valentina Frey at the start of the audience in the Paul VI hall while she breastfed her daughter Charlotte Katharina.
He said the act was an example of ‘tenderness’ and ‘beauty’ before continuing his speech.
The Pope said: ‘Something caught my attention while the readers were reciting the Biblical passages there was the baby over there that was crying.
‘And I was looking at the mother. Who was nursing the baby and comforting her.
The Pope said: I was looking at the mother. Who was nursing the baby and comforting her and I was thinking about how God is like this with us. How he often tries to comfort us and nurse us’
The Pope reverted to going without a coronavirus face mask while addressing the audience in the Vatican City, Rome, Italy, today
‘I was thinking about how God is like this with us. How he often tries to comfort us and nurse us.
‘It is a beautiful image when we see this happening in church and we hear a baby crying and we see a mother’s tenderness.
