Page 7 - aruba-today-20201022

A7
up front Thursday 22 OcTOber 2020
Francis becomes 1st pope to endorse same-sex civil unions

Continued from Front Since then, he has minis-
tered to gays and trans-
However, conservative sexual prostitutes, and
Bishop Thomas Tobin of welcomed people in gay
Providence, Rhode Island, partnerships into his inner
called for clarification. "The circle. One of them was
pope's statement clearly his former student, Yayo
contradicts what has been Grassi, who along with his
the long-standing teach- partner visited Francis at
ing of the church about the Vatican Embassy in
same-sex unions," he said Washington D.C., during a
in a statement. "The church 2015 visit to the U.S.
cannot support the ac- The Vatican publicized that
ceptance of objectively encounter, making video
immoral relationships." and photos of it availa-
Catholic teaching holds ble, after Francis was am-
that gays must be treated bushed during that same
with dignity and respect visit by his then-ambassa-
but that homosexual acts dor, Archbishop Carlo Mar-
are "intrinsically disor- ia Vigano, who invited the
dered." A 2003 document anti-gay marriage activist
from the Vatican's doctrine Kim Davis to meet with the
office stated the church's pope.
respect for gays "cannot In this May 21, 2015 file photo, Mauro Cioffari, left, puts a wedding ring on his partner Davide News of the Davis audi-
lead in any way to approv- Conti's finger as their civil union is being registered by a municipality officer during a ceremony in ence made headlines and
al of homosexual behavior Rome's Campidoglio Capitol Hill. Associated Press was viewed by conserva-
or to legal recognition of tives as a papal stamp of
homosexual unions." they patched things up, crises and tragedies, with not just his own." approval for Davis, who
Doing so, the Vatican rea- Francis assured him that audio from the pope pro- Francis' outreach to gays was jailed for refusing to
soned, would not only con- God made Cruz gay. Cruz viding possible solutions. dates to his first foreign trip issue same-sex marriage li-
done "deviant behavior," tells his own story through- Afineevsky, who was nomi- in 2013, when he uttered censes. The Vatican vigor-
but create an equivalence out the film, chronicling nated for an Oscar for his the now-famous words ously sought to downplay
to marriage, which the both Francis' evolution 2015 documentary "Win- "Who am I to judge," when it, with a spokesman saying
church holds is an indissol- on understanding sexual ter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight asked during an airborne the meeting by no means
uble union between man abuse as well as to docu- for Freedom," traveled the news conference returning indicated Francis' support
and woman. ment the pope's views on world to document the film: from Rio de Janiero about for her or her position on
That document was signed gay people. at Cox's Bazaar in Bangla- a purportedly gay priest. gay marriage.q
by the then-prefect of the Afineevsky had remarkable desh, where Myanmar's Ro-
office, Cardinal Joseph access to cardinals, the hingya sought refuge; the
Ratzinger, the future Pope Vatican television archives U.S.-Mexico border; and
Benedict XVI and Francis' and the pope himself. He Francis' native Argentina.
predecessor. said he negotiated his way "The film tells the story of the
Director Evgeny Afineevsky, in through persistence, pope by reversing the cam-
who is gay, expressed sur- and deliveries of Argen- eras," said Vatican com-
prise after the premiere tine mate tea and Alfajores munications director Paolo
that the pope's comments cookies that he got to the Ruffini, one of Afineevsky's
had created such a fire- pope via well-connected closest Vatican-based col-
storm, saying Francis wasn't Argentines in Rome. laborators.
trying to change doctrine The director worked official Ruffini said that when
but was merely expressing and unofficial channels Afineevsky approached
his belief that gays should starting in 2018, and ended him about a documentary,
enjoy the same rights as up so close to Francis by he tried to tamp down his
heterosexuals. the end of the project that hopes for interviewing the
"The world needs positiv- he showed him the movie pope. "I told him it wasn't
ity right now, the world on his iPad in August. The going to be easy," he said.
needs to care about cli- two recently exchanged But Ruffini suggested
mate change, care about Yom Kippur greetings; Afineevsky find the people
refugees and migration, Afineevsky is a Russian- who had been impacted
borders, walls, family sep- born, Israeli-raised Jew now by the pope, even after
aration," Afineevsky said, based in Los Angeles. On just a brief meeting: refu-
urging attention to the Wednesday, Afineevsky's gees, prisoners and gays to
main issues covered by the 48th birthday, the director whom he has ministered.
film. One main character said Francis presented him "I told him that many of
in the documentary is Juan with a birthday cake at the those encounters had cer-
Carlos Cruz, the Chilean Vatican. tainly been filmed by the
survivor of clergy sexual But "Francesco" is more Vatican cameras, and that
abuse whom Francis initial- than a biopic about the there he would find a veri-
ly discredited during a 2018 pope. Wim Wenders did table gold mine of stories
visit to Chile. that in the 2018 film "Pope that told a story," Ruffini
Cruz, who is gay, said that Francis: A Man of His Word." said. "He would be able
during his first meetings with "Francesco," is more a vis- to tell story of the pope
the pope in May 2018 after ual survey of the world's through the eyes of all and