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VENEZUELA, October 26, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Citing Pope Francis’ recent comments in favor of homosexual civil unions, Venezuela’s far-left president Nicolas Maduro asked his country’s National Assembly to discuss same-sex “marriage” during its next term.
“I have friends and acquaintances who were very happy with what the Pope said yesterday…I will leave that task, the task of LGBT marriage, to the next National Assembly,” Reuters reports Maduro saying.
Maduro delivered his comments to the leaders of his Socialist Party at an event on October 22, the day after the release of the documentary, Francesco, in which the Pope made his remarks on civil unions for homosexuals that contradict previous Church teaching.
Pope Francis’ comments in the documentary included a statement on the need to enact civil union laws for the protection of same-sex couples. “What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. I stood up for that,” the Pope said.
Remarks attributed to Pope Francis (and, not denied by the Vatican) in support of homosexual civil unions have caused grave scandal to the faithful.
Please SIGN this urgent petition which asks Pope Francis to clarify and rectify these heterodox and scandalous remarks on homosexual civil unions, and which will be delivered both to the Vatican and to the Papal Nuncio of the United States (the Pope's official representative in the U.S.).
As the last guarantor of the Faith, the Pope should clarify and rectify these remarks, which go against the perennial teaching of the Church, even including the teaching of his living predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
"What we have to create is a law of civil coexistence [meaning civil union law, for homosexuals]...," Pope Francis is reported to have remarked, in what is arguably his clearest statement of public support for a practice morally prohibited by official Catholic Church teaching.
In fact, the Church has been crystal clear in Her opposition to homosexual unions.
Just in 2003, Pope Saint John Paul II approved a document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, titled 'Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons' and written by Cardinal Ratzinger (now, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI), which concludes with the following:
"The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions. The common good requires that laws recognize, promote and protect marriage as the basis of the family, the primary unit of society. Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity. The Church cannot fail to defend these values, for the good of men and women and for the good of society itself."
It could not be more clear: the Church is calling people to repentance, not to be left to indulge in grave sin.
Since becoming public, several senior prelates as well as other notable Catholic figures have voiced their opposition to these remarks attributed to the Pontiff.
Cardinal Raymond Burke stated: "It is a source of deepest sadness and pressing pastoral concern that the private opinions reported with so much emphasis by the press and attributed to Pope Francis do not correspond to the constant teaching of the Church, as it is expressed in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition."
Cardinal Gerhard Müller commented: "Where there is tension between the plain and obvious Word of God and the infallible interpretation on the one hand, and private expressions of opinion even by the highest church authorities on the other, the principle always applies: in dubio pro DEO [When in doubt, be in favor of God]."
And, Catholic theologian and apologist Scott Hahn, without directly quoting Pope Francis, shared on Facebook the 'Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,' published by the CDF in 1986, with the statement: "Holy Father, respectfully and humbly, I beg to differ... if that is indeed what you said. In any case, please clarify and rectify your statement, especially in view of the official teaching of our Lord through the magisterium of His Church."
But, the silence from the Vatican has been deafening, with no clarification forthcoming.
We must, therefore, ask the Pope for clarification in this serious matter.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition which asks Pope Francis to clarify and rectify remarks attributed to him in support of homosexual civil unions.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Cdl. Burke: Pope’s homosexual civil union remarks ‘contrary’ to Scripture, Tradition' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/cardinal-burke-on-popes-homosexual-civil-union-remarks-contrary-to-the-teaching-of-sacred-scripture-and-sacred-tradition
'Cardinal says Catholics ‘can and should’ disagree with Pope’s ‘opinion’ on gay civil unions' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/cdl.mueller-popes-words-on-gay-civil-unions-purely-private-expression-of-opinion-which-every-catholic-can-and-should-freely-contradict
'Archbishop Vigano, Bishops Tobin and Strickland respond to Pope’s approval of homosexual civil unions' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/archbishop-vigano-and-bishops-tobin-strickland-respond-to-popes-approval-of-homosexual-civil-unions
'Pope’s comments on gay civil unions cause shockwaves around the world' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/deepest-sadness-cardinal-burke-condemns-pope-franciss-remarks-supporting-civil-unions
The Venezuelan National Assembly would have to change the country’s civil code to legalize same-sex “marriage.” Article 44 of Venezuela’s civil code says that “matrimony can only be contracted between a single man and a single woman.”
An election for a new National Assembly is scheduled for December 6. The election has been denounced by critics as a fraudulent attempt by the illegitimate Maduro regime to consolidate its power. The legitimacy of the elections has been contested due to irregularities in its planning process and concern that the vote will be rigged. Rather than being appointed by the National Assembly as envisioned in the country’s constitution, the National Electoral Council was appointed by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, which is loyal to Maduro.
The opposition parties that make up the Democratic Unity Roundtable have agreed to boycott the election, and have received international support from the Lima Group, the International Contact Group, the European Union, and the United States. While the Venezuelan bishops’ conference has criticized the Maduro regime for its actions, it also criticized the opposition’s boycott.
Maduro has been on record supporting same-sex “marriage” since 2017. Planned parliamentary discussions of the were postponed once his legitimacy as president was contested after the country’s 2018 presidential election.
Maduro is not the only politician to have used Pope Francis’ remarks to advance the legal recognition of same-sex relationships. In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, indicated that the Pope’s words will be used to silence conservatives opposed to legalizing same-sex civil unions. “With no less than the Pope supporting it, I think even the most conservative of all Catholics in Congress should no longer have a basis for objecting,” he said.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin was nuncio to Venezuela during the dictatorship of Chavez until being recalled to Rome by Pope Francis. He was credited with re-establishing diplomatic relations with the Latin American Marxist regime.
Related:
Pope’s comments on gay civil unions cause shockwaves around the world
Pope Francis calls for homosexual civil unions, bashes Trump in new film