The Pope thinks the family is based on the marriage of a man and a woman. He is against divorce. He is against intentional marital infertility. He is against adultery.

I don’t have links, but could probably find proof that he is against polygamy and deliberately having children out of wedlock as a sort of lifestyle choice. All in all, not a fun guy by today’s insane standards.

So there’s the setup.

Now: suppose he give a speech touching on civil unrest, economic problems, religious freedom and family. And suppose that in that speech, he says this:

Blessed John Paul II stated that “the path of peace is at the same time the path of the young”, inasmuch as young people embody “the youth of the nations and societies, the youth of every family and of all humanity”. Young people thus impel us to take seriously their demand for truth, justice and peace. For this reason, I chose them as the subject of my annual World Day of Peace Message, entitled Educating Young People in Justice and Peace. Education is a crucial theme for every generation, for it determines the healthy development of each person and the future of all society. It thus represents a task of primary importance in this difficult and demanding time. In addition to a clear goal, that of leading young people to a full knowledge of reality and thus of truth, education needs settings. Among these, pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman. This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself. The family unit is fundamental for the educational process and for the development both of individuals and States; hence there is a need for policies which promote the family and aid social cohesion and dialogue. It is in the family that we become open to the world and to life and, as I pointed out during my visit to Croatia, “openness to life is a sign of openness to the future”. In this context of openness to life, I note with satisfaction the recent sentence of the Court of Justice of the European Union forbidding patenting processes relative to human embryonic stem cells, as well as the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemning prenatal selection on the basis of sex.

(Emphasis added, but read the whole thing as carefully as you like.)

How does Reuters report it?

Gay marriage a threat to humanity’s future: Pope.

Indeed, “some of his strongest comments against gay marriage.”

Do not trust the press on religious topics.

(Huge HT to GetReligion.com)