Can you feel the shade tonight?
Elton John is calling out the Catholic Church for refusing to bless same-sex unions, while “investing millions” in a movie that celebrates his marriage to David Furnish.
After the Vatican issued a decree Monday clarifying its position on same-sex marriages, the pop superstar and longtime LGBTQ rights activist expressed his outrage.
The document, which was approved by Pope Francis, stated that “persons with homosexual inclinations” should be treated with respect and sensitivity, but that doesn’t change the Vatican’s belief that gay sex is “intrinsically disordered.”
“How can the Vatican refuse to bless gay marriages because they ‘are sin’, yet happily make a profit from investing millions in ‘Rocketman’ — a film which celebrates my finding happiness from my marriage to David??” the 73-year-old Grammy and Oscar-winning musician tweeted Monday afternoon, adding the hashtag, #hypocrisy. He also tagged the pope and the Vatican’s press office.
“Rocketman” is the 2019 Academy Award-winning biopic starring actor Taron Egerton that traced the life of the superstar from his early days as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music to his bigger-than-life flamboyant glam pop era — with all the gay sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ that came with it.
In his tweet, John shared a screenshot of The Guardian reporting that the “Catholic church cannot bless same-sex unions” because God “cannot bless sin” next to a Daily Beast article published in December 2019 headlined, “How the Vatican Spent Millions on Elton John’s Biopic.”
According to the story, which first appeared in the the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera
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, the Vatican spent more than 4 million euros (around $ 4.75 million) “to finance the production of films such as the latest ‘Men in Black’ and the biography of Elton John, ‘Rocketman.'”The Vatican hasn’t denied the story. At the time, it told the The Daily Beast that it was investigating the claims.
John was an executive producer of the lucrative film. His husband, David Furnish, served as a producer.
“Rocketman,” which had a reported budget of $40 million, grossed $195 million worldwide.