Rome: The Roman Catholic Church Pope Francis supported civil unions for same sex couples, according to remarks Francis made in a new documentary that the debuted in Rome on Wednesday.

Speaking about Pastoral outreach and care for people who identified as LGBT, Francis directly address the issue of civil unions in the film. What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered, Francis said amid remarks in which he otherwise reiterated his support for gay people as children of God. I stood up for that, said Pope.

The Pope appeared to be referring to he was Arch Bishop of Buenos Aires and opposed legislation to approve same sex marriages but supported legal protection for the rights of gay couples. It was not immediately clear when Francis made those remarks, but Evgeny Afineevsky the Director of the documentary, Francesco said that Francis made the remarks directly to him for the film.

Church teaching considers homo sexual acts intrinsically disordered and the Church is opposed to gay marriage. Matteo Bruni, a spokesman for Vatican, declined to comment immediately.