Politicians sometimes mischaracterize the beliefs and teachings of their own church – all too often generating confusion.

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine, who is Roman Catholic, spoke before the Human Rights Campaign annual dinner over the weekend. During his talk, he expressed “complete” support for LGBTQ equality and emphasized his endorsement of unnatural marriage.

“And you know like many people of faith, including maybe many in this room, my support for marriage equality now, my full, complete, unconditional support for marriage equality, is at odds with the current doctrine of the church that I still attend – but I think that’s going to change, too,” Kaine stated.

But Stefano Gennarini of the Center for Family & Human Rights (C-FAM) tells OneNewsNow that’s not true. He points out that Pope Francis is often cited as saying “Who am I to judge?” if someone identifies as homosexual – but the pontiff has made the church’s position clear in his own statements.

Gennarini

“He wrote that relations between individuals of the same sex cannot be in any way, shape, or form even remotely comparable to the union of a man and a woman in marriage,” he explains. “So that statement would seem not only to quash any recognition of the church for not only gay marriage but even for civil unions or any kind of union for that matter.”

Gennarini says it’s sad when politicians choose to misrepresent their own church. “These assertions are so common that they even go unchallenged,” he notes. “That’s also a pity – and so therefore there’s not a lot of clarity and it’s very deceptive to many people.”

Kaine campaigned in 2006 against an amendment to the constitution of Virginia to bar “gay marriage” – and in early 2013 announced his support for same-sex marriage.