On Sunday, Pope Francis addressed 25,000 followers from the Diocese of Rome about how fundamental the differences between men and women are. The pontiff described it as "an integral part of being human," RNS reports.
The pope released the message about the importance of having heterosexual parents to a child a day after the Rome Gay Pride parade. The said parade was attended by thousands of spectators and participants, including city mayor Ignazio Marino.
The activity only revealed the shifting perspective of the people in Italy, which is predominantly Catholic. Despite the people's growing acceptance of same-sex marriage and homosexual parenting, the pontiff remained still on his stand that marriage is for a man and a woman and that heterosexual parents are the best for children.
The pontiff compared a long lasting marriage to a good wine. A good wine tastes better with age and so is marriage, in which a husband and wife makes the most of their gender differences.
The pope said that heterosexual couples are not afraid of their differences, but they used each other's differences to complement one another. "What great richness this diversity is, a diversity which becomes complementary, but also reciprocal. It binds them, one to the other, " the pope said.
Pope Francis did not only talk about the advantage of gender difference in marriage, he also remarked that it is important for good parenting.
"Children mature seeing their father and mother like this; their identity matures being confronted with the love their father and mother have, confronted with this difference," Pope Francis said.
The pope has been consistent with his stand about the issue. In a report from Vatican Radio, on November, the pontiff used the word complementary to marriage and parenting, saying, "complementarity is at the root of marriage and family." He added, "complementarity will take many forms as each man and woman brings his or her distinctive contributions to their marriage and to the formation of their children."
On the same report from Vatican Radio, Pope Francis said, "children have the right to grow up in a family with a father and mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child's development and emotional maturity."
On the brighter side, despite the pope's adverse perspective towards same-sex marriage, BuzzFeed reported that he will be holding his first public meeting with a married gay activist on his visit to Paraguay in July.
Simon Cazal, executive director of the Paraguayan LGBT rights group SOMOSGAY, received the invitation on June 4 from the committee of the Paraguayan bishops' conference. Cazal will be participating in a roundtable with the pope and other civil society leaders.
It was said that the invitation arrived shortly after SOMOSGAY called the Catholic Church to "abandon the positions of intolerance and insults dehumanizing LGBT people."
