Fr. Lombardi: Papal comments on education “manipulated” by media
(Vatican Radio) The Director of the Holy See’s Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi
has issued an explanatory note following extensive debate in the Italian media after
the publication by the Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica of a conversation between
Pope Francis and religious superiors on November 29th. Many comments focused
on gay unions.
In his note, Fr. Lombardi says in his conversation with the
religious superiors, the Pope took up the consideration that the situation in which
young people and children today are educated is very different from the past because
they live in many difficult family situations: with separated parents, new “anomalous”
unions, and "sometimes even homosexual unions and so on."
“Education and the
proclamation of faith,” notes Lombardi, “of course cannot ignore this reality and
must be attentive to the welfare of future generations, affectionately accompanying
them in their current context,” so that they will not react negatively to the faith.
Several
Italian media reported on this very “general conversation on the educational role
of the Church November 29th,” comments Lombardi, who notes that only “in
recent days” has the question has been raised in the debate regarding the recognition
of civil unions of same-sex couples .
The topic was quite obviously “forced”
Fr. Lombardi observes, “so as to appear in some cases as a manipulation.” Speaking
of an "openness to gay couples " is paradoxical, Fr. Lombardi states, “because the
Pope's speech is overall general (in nature) and because even the small concrete example
made by the Pope about (a girl who is sad because her mother’s girlfriend does not
love her ) alludes to the suffering of children ...”
The Pope had “absolutely
not expressed” his opinions on a debate that was ignited in Italy one month later,
Fr. Lombardi says, and “those who remember the positions he expressed earlier in
Argentina during similar debates know that they were completely different from what
some people are now trying surreptitiously to attribute to him.”