Pope Francis' 5 Most-Controversial Comments
Openness to Same-Sex Unions
Akin to the "Who am I to judge?" comment, a year later in November 2014 various Italian news outlets carried the claim that Pope Francis had expressed an "openness" to same-sex unions.
"Reflecting on educational challenges he'd faced as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, the pope mentioned a situation involving the child of a lesbian couple as an example of 'new challenges which sometimes are difficult for us to understand,'" noted the National Catholic Reporter in a 2014 article.
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In response to the news stories, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi released a statement on Vatican Radio denying that Francis was expressing support for same-sex unions.
"This point about the educational responsibilities of the Church, which in a sense is fairly obvious, was made on Nov. 29 in entirely general terms, [but] has been placed by various Italian media outlets in the context of the question raised in recent days of recognition of civil unions of homosexual couples," said Lombardi.
"To speak of an 'opening to gay couples' is paradoxical, because the pope's comment is completely general and because even the small concrete example made by the pope in this regard (a young girl who was sad because the female fiancé of her mother doesn't love her) alludes to the suffering of the child ..."
