Argentine's on pope's support of same-sex unions

LGBT+ organizations in Argentina welcomed the news that Pope Francis has endorsed same-sex civil unions cautiously because a civil union, in their view, is not the same as equal marriage.

"When (LGBT+) organizations demanded sam-sex marriage we did not claim it only for the rights that perhaps a civil union law could have given us but for the very notion of equality before the state," said Esteban Paulón, Director of the Institute of LGBT+ Public Policies.

Pope Francis became the first pontiff to endorse same-sex civil unions in comments for a documentary that premiered Wednesday, sparking cheers from gay Catholics and demands for clarification from conservatives, given the Vatican's official teaching on the issue.

The papal thumbs-up came midway through the feature-length documentary "Francesco," which premiered at the Rome Film Festival.

"Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God," Francis said in one of his sit-down interviews for the film. "You can't kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered."

While serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis endorsed civil unions for gay couples as an alternative to same-sex marriages. However, he had never come out publicly in favor of civil unions as pope, and no pontiff before him had, either.

However, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was fervently opposed to gay marriage when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires. Then, he launched what gay activists remember as a "war of God" against Argentina's move to approve same-sex marriage.

The pope's authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, said at the time of his 2013 election that Bergoglio was politically wise enough to know the church couldn't win a fight against gay marriage. Instead, Rubin said, Bergoglio urged his fellow bishops to lobby for gay civil unions.

It wasn't until Bergoglio's proposal was shot down by the conservative bishops' conference that he publicly declared his opposition, and the church lost the issue altogether.

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