MEXICO CITY — A Mexican television broadcaster confirmed Thursday that Pope Francis’ bombshell comments endorsing same-sex civil unions were made during a May 2019 interview that was never broadcast in its entirety.
Broadcaster Televisa said Thursday that the emphasis of its interview was on clergy sexual abuse and suggested it didn’t consider the comments on civil unions as newsworthy because Francis had previously indicated support for them.
The Vatican, which had the full interview in its archives, apparently allowed the comments to be aired now in the documentary “Francesco,” which premiered Wednesday.
In the movie, which was shown at the Rome Film Festival, Francis said gays shouldn’t be kicked out of families or made miserable. “What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered,” Francis said.
But a source in Mexico familiar with the interview said the original raw footage the Vatican provided to Televisa from the interview did not include the quote on civil unions. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The Vatican did not respond to requests for comment.
When the pope consents to such interviews, the Vatican television unit films them and provides the full footage to the correspondent in question to edit and choose what to use. The Vatican takes that edit and the final product goes out simultaneously via the broadcaster and Vatican media.
The civil union comments caused a firestorm, thrilling progressives and alarming conservatives, given that official Vatican teaching prohibits any such endorsement of homosexual unions.
While serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio endorsed extending civil union protections to gay couples as an alternative to moves by the country to approve same-sex marriage, which he firmly opposed. However, he had never come out publicly in favor of legal protections for civil unions as pope, and no pontiff before him had, either.
One of Francis’ top communications advisers, the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, insisted Wednesday the pope’s comments were old news, saying they were made during the May 2019 interview with Televisa.
“There’s nothing new because it’s a part of that interview,” Spadaro told The Associated Press as he exited the premiere. “It seems strange that you don’t remember.”
