Elton John calls out ‘hypocritical’ Vatican over gay marriage stance after they invested ‘millions’ in Rocketman

Elton John has called out the Vatican as “hypocritical” for refusing to bless same-sex unions despite having invested “millions” in the singer’s biopic.

Reports recently emerged that the Vatican’s orthodoxy office had responded “negative” to a question on whether Catholic clergy can bless gay unions.

John – who married David Furnish in 2014 – took to social media to share his views on the reports.

“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?? #hypocrisy,” he wrote on Instagram. 

The 73-year-old accompanied his caption with a screenshot of a news story published by The Guardian yesterday (15 March) titled: “Catholic church cannot bless same-sex unions, Vatican decrees”, next to a second screenshot of a 2019 piece by The Daily Beast titled: “How the Vatican Spent Millions on Elton John’s Biopic.” 

According toThe Daily Beast’s expose on the Vatican’s finances, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church invested heavily in the 2019 film Rocketman.

“The most curious item on the report to come out so far is a $4.5m (£3.25m) expenditure recorded in February of this year (2019) related to finance for the 2019 films Men in Black International and Elton John’s rather steamy biopic Rocketman,” wrote journalist Barbie Latza Nadeau.  

Rocketman, directed by Dexter Fletcher and written by Lee Hall, starred Taron Egerton as a young Elton John who begins to perform music at his local pubs after completing his studies. 

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It garnered praise for its portrayal of the singer’s sexuality and featured a sex scene between Egerton and Richard Madden (who portrayed his manager John Reid).

The biopic was a critical success, earning Egerton a Golden Globe award for Best Actor.