Pope opens to civil unions for gay couples

(ANSA) - VATICAN CITY, OCT 21 - Pope Francis says in a new documentary presented at the Rome Film Fest Wednesday that "homosexuals have the right to be part of a family, they are children of God and are entitled to a family," according to the Catholic News Agency.
    "What we must do is a law on civil unions," the pontiff says in the documentary, titled Francesco (Francis).
    "In that way they are legally covered".
    The Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is a disorder and considers sexual activity between members of the same sex to be a sin.
    Catholic dissenters from the church's teaching say that love between people of the same sex is as spiritually valuable as love between people of the opposite sex and that LGBT Catholics are as much members of the body of Christ as heterosexuals are.
    Catholic organizations that support the church's teaching may campaign against gay rights, or argue that gay people should be celibate or try to become heterosexual. (ANSA).