In his document on marriage and family,
Pope Francis calls on Roman Catholics to support families, provided
they're not headed by an LGBT couple.
The document, titled The Joy of Love
and released Friday, appears to close the door on marriage equality.
“There is a failure to realize that
only the exclusive and indissoluble union between a man and a woman
has a plenary role to play in society as a stable commitment that
bears fruit in new life,” the pope wrote.
“We need to acknowledge the great
variety of family situations that can offer a certain stability, but
de facto or same-sex unions, for example, may not simply be equated
with marriage.”
Elsewhere in the document, Pope Francis
quotes from a bishops' report on the family produced over two years:
“There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions
to be in any way similar remotely analogous to God's plan for
marriage and family.”
But the pope also appears to offer some
hope, writing that “Some forms of union radically contract this
ideal [of heterosexual marriage], while others realize it in at least
a partial and analogous way. The Synod Fathers stated that the
Church does not disregard the constructive elements in those
situations which do not yet or no longer correspond to her teaching
on marriage.”
In a statement given to The
Washington Post, Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of
DignityUSA, a group that advocates for LGBT Catholics, expressed
disappointment.
“In this document, Pope Francis has
continued the characterization of LGBT people as unable to fully
reflect the fullness of God's plan for humanity. We had hope for
much more, and many, many people are profoundly disappointed today,”
she wrote.
The entire document is available on the
Vatican's website.