Vatican Recalls Opposition To Same-Sex Marriage

Less than six months ago, Pope Francis seemingly endorsed same-sex unions during an interview with Televisa. In response to potential misunderstandings, the Vatican has issued a new statement to clarify their position.

And it turns out that the interview in question had gone unnoticed until now. This was a real relief for the Vatican because Pope Francis declared that "homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. What we have to have is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered."

No big deal as you can see since we understand he is calling for civil unions and not marriage, nothing new, but the Vatican still wanted to reiterate the Catholic Church's opposition to same-sex marriage.

The Vatican has issued a new statement just in case the Pope's words were misunderstood, especially since the interview was included in the feature-length documentary "Francesco" and has gained in popularity.

Here are excerpts from the two-page statement:

"The blessing of homosexual unions cannot be considered licit. 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.
"He [God] does not and cannot bless sin. He blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him. ... The Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex."

And they specified that "the declaration of the unlawfulness of blessings of unions between persons of the same sex is not ... intended to be a form of unjust discrimination but rather a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite."

The more it goes on, the more the Vatican seems out of step with its flock at a time when polls show an increase in support for marriage equality, including among members of different churches.

This statement is also very hypocritical, as always when it comes to homosexuality and religion, since it has been proven by investigations that a good part of the religious representatives of the Christian church, not to say the majority, are gay.