Vatican Says Pope Was Taken Out of Context on Same-Sex Couples

(Bloomberg) -- The Vatican walked back Pope Francis’s comments supporting same-sex unions, saying the pontiff’s words were taken out of context.

In a documentary first aired Oct. 21, the pope was shown saying that gay couples “have a right to a family.” This was seen as a significant shift from the Catholic Church’s long-held opposition to homosexual relationships, but so far the Vatican has refrained from officially commenting on the incident.

Read More: Pope Backs Civil Unions, Says LGBTQ Have ‘Right to a Family’

In an internal document for bishops first posted on Twitter by papal biographer Austen Ivereigh, the Vatican says that the pope’s answers to two different questions were edited as a single segment without providing appropriate context. The document’s authenticity was confirmed by a Vatican official.

The pope was referring to the right of gay people to be accepted by their families, the document said, while rejecting same-sex marriages in what was an unedited answer.

The two-page letter seeks to square off the pope’s ground-breaking comments on the documentary. It says that the pope was referring to legal frameworks in some countries where civil unions were allowed between same-sex couples and he was not breaking with church doctrine.

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