In his message to writer Francesca Pardi, who authored Why Do You Have Two Mommies, the pope also wished her and her partner ever more fruitful work in the service of young generations. Pardi, whos not even Catholic, sent Francis copies of her books after she came under fire from Christian groups.
My books present different types of families without setting any of them up as a model, Pardi told AFP, praising the pope for showing respect and dignity towards her, her wife and their four children. It was not important for me that it was the pope who said it, I am not a Catholic.
But it is important to see that we are not up against a wall; a dialogue is possible.
Vatican officials are now scrambling to downplay the popes blessing, especially as Francis was already taking heat for promoting global government and man-made climate change.
Earlier this month an irate Catholic interrupted a church meeting about global warming in California to accuse the Catholic Church of selling its soul to push a government agenda.
This is the biggest instance of heresy
Im here to advocate for traditional Catholicism
how dare you, the man yelled before accusing some of the speakers of advocating abortion.
He wasnt alone; Catholics around the world were also attacking the pope over his encyclical asking them to support larger government to stop global warming.
Im concerned the Pope is going to alienate many, many people with this encyclical because of his personal political viewpoints: people who would be faithful Catholics but disagree with his personal politics, but dont understand the Pope is not infallible on science or politics, a Catholic with the screen name zz912 wrote on Catholic.com.