Pope Francis calls for civil union laws for same-sex couples - The Washington Post

ROME — In a new documentary, Pope Francis has called for the creation of civil union laws for same-sex couples, in remarks that break from the Catholic Church’s official teaching and mark his clearest support to date for the issue.

In the documentary, according to the Catholic News Agency, Francis says same-sex couples should be “legally covered.”.

Francis, who became pope in 2013, gave earlier, oblique signals interpreted as openness to recognizing same-gender civil unions.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, a national organization of Catholics dedicated to LGBTQ rights, said that while many feel Pope Francis has been open to allowing them their legal rights, other Catholic leaders have still pushed for policies opposing same-sex marriage and adoption rights in other countries.

She also noted that Francis had stopped short of advocating for legalized marriage for same-sex couples.

According to a Religion News Service story from 2014, Francis — while still a cardinal in Argentina — tried to “negotiate with the Argentine government over the legalization of gay marriage and signaled he would be open to civil unions as an alternative.”.

Francis made news that year when the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra published an interview with him reiterating “the church’s teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman while acknowledging that governments want to adopt civil unions for gay couples and others to allow for economic and other benefits,” RNS reported.

Some said Francis had outright endorsed civil unions.

Italy was the last country in Western Europe — other than Vatican City — to offer same-sex couples legal rights, The Washington Post reported in 2016, a position based on the Roman Catholic Church’s historic opposition to such unions

In 2015, New York Archbishop Tim Dolan was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if accepting civil unions would make him “uncomfortable,” Dolan said it would, because it could “water down” the traditional religious view of marriage,” the RNS story reported