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Showing posts with the label Lombardi

Vatican clarifies: Pope did not express support for homosexual civil unions during Q&A

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ROME, – After some Italian journalists reported that remarks about a lesbian fiancee made by Pope Francis during  a Q&A  showed that the pope is open to the homosexual civil union legislation currently being considered in Italy , the Vatican has issued a statement denying those media reports.  The reports are the latest in a spate of media portrayals that paint Pope Francis as open to homosexuality, which reached its apex with the selection of Pope Francis as  person of the year by the homosexual activist magazine The Advocate .  A Vatican clarification issued today to  Vatican radio  noted, however, that the pope did not take a position on the civil unions legislation in his remarks, which predated the debate in Italy.  The text of the Q&A session, which occurred on November 29, was released this past Friday in the Jesuit Journal L a Civilta Cattolica .  During  that Q&A , the pope recalled a complex situation he encountered while in Buenos Aires. “I reme

Vatican vows to continue fighting for traditional marriage despite setbacks

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ROME , November 12, 2012  – In an unusually strongly worded statement on Vatican Radio ’s website, Fr. Federico Lombardi , the head of the Vatican’s press office, has vowed that the Church “will not give up its defence of marriage” despite recent setbacks. Lombardi’s comments followed a  front-page editorial  in the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano , which appeared the same day and decried the growth of “politically correct ideologies invading every culture of the world,” backed by organizations like the UN. The paper called for “courage” from Catholics in fighting those ideologies. The Church, said the editorial, “is the only institution to point out that while it is certainly unfair to persecute homosexuals, to oppose the marriage between persons of the same sex is not an offensive act, but a point of view that must be respected.” “And so is opposition to abortion,” it added. “This is not an attack on human rights, but the defense of a social structure - the het