VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis is seeking to reassure the church’s right-wing base that he’s not a renegade bent on changing church doctrine on family issues – weeks after a Vatican meeting of bishops initially proposed a radical welcome for gays and divorced Catholics.
Francis on Monday opened an interreligious conference on the “complementarity” of men and women in marriage and sex. He said marriage between a man and woman is a “fundamental pillar” of society and that children have the right to grow up with a mother and father.
It was the second papal speech emphasizing church doctrine in as many days: On Saturday, Francis pronounced some of his strongest words yet against abortion, euthanasia and in vitro fertilization, sounding more like his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, than the Argentine Jesuit who famously said “Who am I to judge?” about gays.
Vatican officials concurred that the interventions could be read as a response to the conservative backlash that erupted after the recent meeting of the world’s bishops on family issues. The meeting’s organizers, who were hand-picked by Francis, initially proposed a revolutionary welcome toward gays and civilly remarried Catholics, following Francis’ exhortation that the church must welcome all.
Gay rights groups and liberal Catholics cheered, even though the bishops scrapped the welcome in their final document.