BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV corrects the Francis record on cohabitation – LifeSite
Mon Jun 2, 2025 – 5:20 pm EDTMon Jun 2, 2025 – 5:59 pm EDT
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — There is breaking news today from Rome where Pope Leo is correcting the Francis record on cohabitation. Pope Francis created worldwide scandal when on June 16, 2016, he said cohabitation is “real marriage” and has the grace of real marriage. I know that is hard to believe, so we have it for you on video and the Vatican transcript.
“In Argentina’s northeast countryside … couples have a child and live together. They have a civil wedding when the child goes to school, and when they become grandparents they ‘get married religiously’,” Francis said.
“It’s a superstition, because marriage frightens the husband. It’s a superstition we have to overcome,” the Pope said. “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity.”
He didn’t only say it once. On February 25, 2017, he made similar remarks speaking to the Roman Rota. And one of his closest advisors, his most frequent interviewer, Jesuit priest Antonio Spadaro, tweeted out a photo of a couple going hand-in-hand to meet with the Pope. The caption on the photo, as you can see, contains the words of the Pope: “The welcoming of those young people who prefer to live together without getting married…”
Imagine how confusing that is to young people.
Well, today at the Vatican, Pope Leo addressed the issue of cohabitation with these words: “Perhaps many young people today, who choose cohabitation instead of Christian marriage, actually need someone who, in a concrete and understandable way—especially by the example of their life—shows them what the gift of sacramental grace is and what strength it brings; someone who helps them understand ‘the beauty and greatness of the vocation to love and to the service of life’ that God gives to spouses (St. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 1).”
Out of love and concern for His creatures, God has taught us that marriage is a necessary prerequisite for sexual relations. The Catechism #2353 teaches:
“Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.”
That is a very different understanding than that of Pope Francis, including in his personal life before becoming Pope. In a revealing interview with Pope Francis’ own niece, she tells the account of his approval when she told him she would be living with another man despite not having an annulment of her marriage to her husband. María Inés Narvaja told Aleteia: “I remember when I told him that I couldn’t wait to until getting married in the Church, that I was a grownup now and I was going to get married in a civil marriage; he answered that ‘it’s the best news you’ve given me.’”
John-Henry is the co-founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of LifeSiteNews.com. He and his wife Dianne have eight children and they live in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada.
He has spoken at conferences and retreats, and appeared on radio and television throughout the world. John-Henry founded the Rome Life Forum, an annual strategy meeting for life, faith and family leaders worldwide. He is a board member of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family. He is a consultant to Canada’s largest pro-life organization Campaign Life Coalition, and serves on the executive of the Ontario branch of the organization. He has run three times for political office in the province of Ontario representing the Family Coalition Party.
John-Henry earned an MA from the University of Toronto in School and Child Clinical Psychology and an Honours BA from York University in Psychology.
