Pope Francis has again argued in favor of registered partnerships for homosexual couples, but never before has he, as Pope, been so clearly in favor of legal regulation. In a personal documentary that premiered today at the Rome Film Festival, the Pope speaks about abuses such as poverty, social inequality and discrimination.
“Gay couples have the right to form a family. They are God’s children and have the right to a family. No one should be expelled from a family or live an unhappy life,” says the Pope halfway through the documentary Francesco. “We have to introduce registered partnership. Then their rights will be legally well regulated.
Director Evgeny Afineevsky has worked on his film for over two years. He says he showed the documentary to the Pope this summer.
Not for the first time
It is not the first time that the Pope has come up with this plea, but what is striking this time is the massive attention from the world press, says Vatican correspondent Andrea Vreede. “The previous times he said it in a newspaper interview and in an interview for a book. Now in a documentary. It is mainly the already hostile ultra-traditional side of the church that is very hard about it.”
Vreede expects nothing to change the attitude of the Catholic Church. “It is up to the state to regulate the rights. Whatever the church could do, he is silent about that.”
–
