CNA Staff, Mar 22, 2013 / 08:21 am
The director of AICA, the Catholic news agency of Argentina, has told CNA that claims of Pope Francis supporting gay civil unions when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires are not true.
Miguel Woites, who works directly with the Bishops' Conference of Argentina, the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires and the Apostolic Nunciature, dismissed statementes made by Sergio Rubin, the author of an interview with Cardinal Bergoglio entitled "Over Heaven and Earth."
Since Pope Francis' election on March 13, media reports have circulated Rubin's claim that the future Pope had supported homosexual unions as a possible political compromise in Argentinia. Rubin has been the only source used by the media for this claim.
In an article for the Argentinean newspaper Clarin, published on March 14, the day after Pope Francis' election, Rubin wrote, "When debate on the gay marriage bill began in the country, Bergoglio proposed that the bishops adopt a moderate position and perhaps leave room for civil unions as a compromise."