POPE FRANCIS APPROVES BLESSINGS FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS

Tue 19 December 2023:

Under certain conditions, Pope Francis has approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, the official Vatican News agency reported on Monday.

“With the Declaration “Fiducia supplicans” issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, approved by Pope Francis, it will be possible to bless same-sex couples but without any type of ritualization or offering the impression of a marriage,” the news agency said.

However, it underlined that the Catholic church’s doctrine regarding marriage does not change, and the “blessing does not signify approval of the union.”

“When two people request a blessing, even if their situation as a couple is ‘irregular,’ it will be possible for the ordained minister to consent. Yet, this gesture of pastoral closeness must avoid any elements that remotely resemble a marriage rite,” the news agency said.

The Vatican’s announcement, known as a declaration, was published six weeks after the end of a global meeting on the Church’s future, which debated social issues such as opening doors to LGBTQ people or divorced and remarried people.

The document, published by the Vatican’s faith department, does not change the Catholic Church’s stance on same-sex marriages or unions.

It reiterates the long-held position that marriage is between only a man and a woman, for the purpose of having children – and says no blessings should be given that confuse the issue.

“This blessing should never be imparted in concurrence with the ceremonies of a civil union, and not even in connection with them,” the document said.

But it is the first time the Vatican has opened the way so clearly to the blessing of same-sex couples, which has been a source of tension within the Church.

A blessing, generally carried out by a priest, consists of invoking God’s benevolence on a person.

Conservative Catholics, particularly in the United States, are strongly opposed to blessing same-sex couples.

But in some places, such as Belgium and Germany, priests have already been doing it, including in church.

James Martin, a US Jesuit priest and well-known advocate for LGBTQ believers, said the document was a “major step forward in the church’s ministry to LGBTQ people”.

He said it was also a “marked shift” from a 2021 decision in which the Vatican said the Church did not have the power to bless same-sex unions because God could not “bless sin”.

Just weeks after taking office in March 2013, Francis notably said that “if someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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