Mexico’s highest-ranking Catholic bishop has said that he agrees with recent comments by Pope Francis in support of civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.
Francis made the comments in Francesco, a documentary on Pope Francis that premiered in October at the Rome Film Festival.
“Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family,” Pope Francis said. “They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it.”
“What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,” he added.
Francis, however, remains opposed to same-sex marriage. He vehemently opposed the passage of a marriage equality bill in his native Argentina. The law passed in 2010.
Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, archbishop of Mexico City, told Reuters that he “completely” agrees with the pope on the issue.
“All of us are children of God, all are members of the family, and if we’re fighting so that families are united, regardless of their conduct, they don’t stop being our children,” Aguiar said. “And that’s what Pope Francis said, everyone has the right to family.”
Aguiar, who is opposed to abortion rights and same-sex marriage, added that parents should not reject their gay children.
“Because if, as it happens unfortunately, a son in a family declares himself openly homosexual, then they don’t want to have anything to do with him. And that can’t be, it just can’t be,” he said.
“If they decide as a matter of free choice to be with another person, to be in a union, that’s freedom,” he added.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBT rights advocate, applauded Aguiar’s comments.
“It is our fervent hope that Cardinal Aguiar Retes’ reaffirmation of the dignity and rights of LGBTQ people encourages others within the Catholic Church, and all faith communities, to advocate for LGBTQ equality,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement.
Mexico City in 2009 became the first Latin American municipality to legalize marriage equality.
by Carlos Santoscoy
Source – On Top Magazine
