The permission came in the form of a document released on Dec. 18 by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). It elaborated on a letter the pontiff sent to two conservative cardinals, which was published in October.
The preliminary response from October suggested that such blessings could be offered under some circumstances if they didn’t confuse the ritual with the sacrament of marriage. The recent response stressed this argument, noting that blessings should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union, using set rituals or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding. (Related: Pope Francis endorses LGBTQ marriage in new documentary film.)
Francis’ response reaffirmed that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman. However, it said requests for such blessings for same-sex couples shouldn’t be denied full stop.
It also offered an extensive definition of the term “blessing” as written in the Holy Scripture. People seeking a transcendent relationship with God and looking for His love and mercy should not be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” as a precondition for receiving it.
“Ultimately, a blessing offers people a meaning to increase their trust in God. The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live,” the document said.
“It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered. Thus, when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it.”
Pope’s approval to bless same-sex couples a radical departure from Catholic doctrine on marriage
The Vatican holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman. Paragraph 1614 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church mentions marriage as “the union of man and woman” – not woman and woman, or man and man. As a result, it has long opposed same-sex marriage.
In 2021, the DDF said that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions because “God cannot bless sin.” The New York Post remarked: “That document created an outcry, one it appeared even Francis was blindsided by even though he had technically approved its publication.”
Instead of standing the church’s ground, Pope Francis removed the DDF official responsible for the 2021 declaration. The pontiff also set about laying the groundwork for a reversal.
According to the Dec. 18 document, the Vatican said the church must eschew “doctrinal or disciplinary schemes, especially when they lead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others; and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts [their] energies in inspecting and verifying.”
The document also emphasized that people in “irregular” unions – whether homosexual or heterosexual – are in a state of sin. But it added that those in such unions do not deserve to be deprived of God’s love or mercy.
The Jesuit pontiff has long supported same-sex marriage, going against the grain of Catholic doctrine. Conservative Catholics have denounced this “radical” stance, however. The Rev. Gerard Murray of the Archdiocese of New York blasted the edict as “absurd” and “horrific.”
“It’s the groundwork for redefining the nature of sin,” he told Newsmax‘s Chris Salcedo. “The church is saying that your behavior is gravely sinful, offensive to God, but the church should bless you. And what does a blessing mean? It means that we ask God to favor you in that relationship.”
“It’s an innovation, meaning it’s something new that was never there before. But it’s not a development of the church’s teaching; it’s a contradiction and a corruption of that teaching.”
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