Francis ‘shocked’ by gay adoption bill proposed for Malta
Pope Francis is “shocked” by proposed legislation that would allow gay couples in Malta to adopt children, a bishop there said.
MPs in the Catholic heartland of Malta, which only legalised divorce in 2011, began debating a Civil Unions Bill in September.
Bishop Charles Scicluna, an auxiliary bishop in Malta, said that he discussed the legislation with Pope Francis when he met him in Rome on 12 December.
“We discussed many aspects...and when I raised the issue that’s worrying me as a bishop [the right for gay couples to adopt] he encouraged me to speak out," Bishop Scicluna told The Sunday Times of Malta.
The bishop then used his Christmas homily to reiterate that a family had to be built around a man and a woman.
When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio condemned gay adoption as a discrimination against children, and gay marriage as a diabolically inspired “destructive attack on God’s plan”.
Asked about the presence of a so-called gay lobby in the Vatican in July, Pope Francis famously said: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?", prompting some observers to hope he would depart from the Church’s official opposition to homosexual behaviour. However, he has always maintained his support for a family structure built around a mother and a father.
Fonte "The Tablet"
Pope Francis is “shocked” by proposed legislation that would allow gay couples in Malta to adopt children, a bishop there said.
MPs in the Catholic heartland of Malta, which only legalised divorce in 2011, began debating a Civil Unions Bill in September.
Bishop Charles Scicluna, an auxiliary bishop in Malta, said that he discussed the legislation with Pope Francis when he met him in Rome on 12 December.
“We discussed many aspects...and when I raised the issue that’s worrying me as a bishop [the right for gay couples to adopt] he encouraged me to speak out," Bishop Scicluna told The Sunday Times of Malta.
The bishop then used his Christmas homily to reiterate that a family had to be built around a man and a woman.
When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio condemned gay adoption as a discrimination against children, and gay marriage as a diabolically inspired “destructive attack on God’s plan”.
Asked about the presence of a so-called gay lobby in the Vatican in July, Pope Francis famously said: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?", prompting some observers to hope he would depart from the Church’s official opposition to homosexual behaviour. However, he has always maintained his support for a family structure built around a mother and a father.
Fonte "The Tablet"
