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Pope Francis says same-sex couples cannot make ‘families’

The leader of the Catholic Church shared his views on families and abortion at the Vatican this weekend

By Fabio Crispim

Pope Francis has said that same-sex couples cannot make real “families”.

Speaking at the Vatican yesterday (June 16) during a meeting with the Forum delle Famiglie, an Italian group for Catholic families, the Pope shared his views on same-sex couples and families, ANSA News Agency reports. 

In unscripted remarks, the Pope said: “It is painful to say this today. People speak of varied families, of various kinds of family,” but “the family [as] man and woman in the image of God is the only one.”

Pope Francis later condemned abortion by comparing it to the Holocaust, saying: “In the last century, the entire world was scandalised by what the Nazis did to ensure the purity of the race.”

He added: “Today we do the same, but with white gloves,” before urging families to accept children “as God gives them to us”. 

The leader of the Catholic Church also praised spouses who stay with their unfaithful partners instead of asking for a divorce. 

The Pope said: “Many women – but even men sometimes do it [with wives] – wait in silence, looking the other way, waiting for their husband to become faithful again.”

He described it as “the sanctity that forgives all out of love.” 

The news comes after the Pope told Juan Carlos Cruz, a gay survivor of sexual abuse by a Chilean priest, that he doesn’t care about his sexuality.