Pope Francis has flatly denied that same-sex marriage was an issue at the recent Vatican marriage summit.
“Nobody mentioned homosexual marriage at the synod,” the Pope said in an interview Sunday. “It did not cross our minds.”
The Pope suggested that confusion may have stemmed from discussions of a different problem, namely how best to help families with a homosexual son or daughter. His remarks were made in an extensive, three-part interview published Sunday in the Argentine newspaper, La Nación.
“What we did talk about,” Francis said, “was how a family with a homosexual child, whether a son or a daughter, goes about educating that child, taking care of that child, and how to help the family to deal with this somewhat unprecedented situation.”
“That is to say,” the Pope continued, “the synod spoke about the family and about homosexual persons in relation to their families, because we come across this reality all the time in the confessional: a father and a mother whose son or daughter is in that situation.”
The Pope also referenced his personal experience, noting that as a priest in Buenos Aires, he had run into this situation several times. “And,” he said, “we have to see how to help that father or that mother to accompany their son or daughter.”
“That’s what the synod addressed,” he said.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter @tdwilliamsrome.
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