Bishop Charles Scicluna has defended
criticizing legislation which would legalize civil unions for gay and
lesbian couples in the southern European nation of Malta, saying Pope
Francis encouraged him to speak out.
Scicluna told the Sunday
Times of Malta that the Holy Father “encouraged me to speak
out” against the proposed legislation during a December 12 meeting.
The pope, Scicluna said, was “quite shocked by the issue of civil
unions and gay adoptions.”
Scicluna has been an outspoken opponent
of the measure, saying
in November that “marriage is not only about friendship and
love. It is about love that expresses itself in the oneness of
flesh, as scripture expresses it, 'They will become one flesh.' …
One understands that when we talk about consummation of a same-sex
marriage, the idea does not make sense because two people of the same
sex cannot become one flesh in a union that is not open to
parenthood.”
In a Christmas sermon to parishioners,
Scicluna claimed the manger scene as evidence that God does not want
children raised by gay couples.
He also told The Times that Pope
Francis “reiterated that gay adoptions are 'un rigresso
antropoligico' [an anthropological regression].”