Pope Francis Softens Vatican’s Ban on Blessing Gay Couples

Pontiff’s statement is likely to inflame tensions with conservative church leaders

Francis X. Rocca

ROME—Pope Francis softened the Vatican’s ban on blessing same-sex couples, saying that priests may use their discretion in giving such blessings, so long as they don’t imply a same-sex union is equivalent to a heterosexual marriage.

The pope’s statement, in a letter released by the Vatican on Monday, marks a significant shift in the Catholic Church’s stance on blessing gay relationships. Its release comes on the eve of a major Vatican meeting that will consider possible changes to church teaching and practice on matters such as homosexuality and women’s ordination.

Catholic priests in Germany and some other northern European countries have for years held ceremonies to bless same-sex couples, in defiance of a Vatican ban. The issue has contributed to the deepening polarization between progressive and conservative tendencies in the global church.

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Francis has taken a conciliatory approach toward gay people, without formally changing church teaching. He endorsed civil unions for same-sex couples in a 2020 documentary film, worrying many conservatives that he was signaling a liberalization of doctrine.

This month’s synod is a major part of Francis’ effort, after a decade in office, to consolidate his progressive legacy. On Wednesday, the opening day of the synod, the Vatican is also scheduled to release a new papal document on environmental concerns.

Francis’ letter was a reply to a letter from conservative cardinals, including U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke and Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, who raised questions relating to the synod, including how much authority it will have.

The statement by Pope Francis, released in a letter by the Vatican, marks a significant shift in the Catholic Church’s stance on blessing gay relationships. Photo: Evandro Inetti/Zuma Press

Among the cardinals’ questions was whether the blessing of same-sex unions can be consistent with Catholic teaching, which holds that gay people “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity” but that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered,” the inclination to perform them is “objectively disordered” and “under no circumstances can they be approved.”

In his reply, written in July, the pope noted that the church defines marriage exclusively as the union of a man and a woman, and “avoids any kind of rite…that could…imply that something which is not marriage is recognized as marriage.”

But he said that priests, acting out of pastoral charity and not as “judges who only deny, reject, exclude,” should aim to discern “whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or more people, that do not convey a misconception of marriage.” He added that such pastoral charity should apply even in situations “that from an objective point of view are not morally acceptable.”

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The pope suggested that such blessings should remain an unofficial practice, writing that such exercises of “pastoral prudence in certain circumstances need not be transformed into a norm.”

Francis’ letter appears to mark a significant softening of the Vatican’s stance. In a 2021 decree whose publication he approved, the Vatican’s doctrinal office prohibited the blessing of gay couples, stating that God “cannot bless sin.”

The pope’s words are likely to inflame a controversy that has been running for years.

On Monday, Burke said he and the other conservative cardinals who wrote to the pope were concerned by his response, since blessing same-sex unions “suggests that homosexual acts can be good, that is, are not in themselves contrary to the moral law.”

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Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ Catholics, said that the pope’s reply “implies that the church does indeed recognize that holy love can exist between same-gender couples…This statement is one big straw towards breaking the camel’s back of the marginalized treatment LGBTQ+ people experience in the Church.”

In March this year, Germany’s liberal Catholic bishops defied the Vatican ban by voting in favor of adopting formal ceremonies to bless same-sex relationships. In late September, several priests held a group blessing ceremony for same-sex couples outside the cathedral of Cologne, Germany.

The Vatican has recently hinted at more flexibility on the issue. The doctrinal office’s new head, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, said earlier in the summer that he would consider the possibility of blessing same-sex relationships, as long as they were distinguished from heterosexual marriage.

Conservative prelates have warned that the issue could precipitate a schism, or a permanent split in the church.

When German bishops and lay Catholic leaders debated same-sex blessings in March, Bishop Gregor Maria Franz Hanke of Eichstätt warned against the proposed move, saying that he hoped “this step is not going to tear us apart the way the Anglican Church finds itself torn apart.”

Conservative Anglican churches, including some in Africa that include nearly half of the world’s estimated 100 million Anglicans, have broken off relations with churches that espouse liberal teaching and practice on homosexuality, including the Episcopal Church in the U.S.

In February, after the Church of England decided to allow the blessing of same-sex relationships, a dozen leading archbishops, mostly from the global South, called for a break with that church, the historical progenitor of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46882411)

This evil pope needs to die.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46882424)

A sin is a sin and it has nothing to do with "hate."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46882456)

Go back to reddit.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46882521)

Wow I for one am shocked that a smug liberal faggot Jewish Pumo just started shooting off at the hip about what this "means" without knowing a goddamn thing about actual Catholic beliefs and doctrine. Really surprising stuff, I mean they usually know what they're talking about and are almost always correct about stuff!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46883836)

I'm constantly battling retarded arrogant kikes like you and the pumo above on this site. It's exhausting.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46883898)

CR sounds like I'm what you fags like to call an "expert," that means you need to respectfully defer to me on this topic, genius

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46883908)

Google "papal infallibility"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46884174)

I'm familiar with the doctrine

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46884221)

The bulk of what he actually wrote is 100x trad. “Marriage is m/w, this can never ever change, we must never be unclear about this, not even a pope could ever change this. We can never do any blessings of gay people that suggest blessing their relationship.”

BUT he acknowledged we can bless gay people. While this is nothing new - priests bless pets and cats and houses - pope should have known media would run with this supposed “new” allowance and the headline woukd be POPE OKAYS FAG BLESSING.

He’s media savvy enough to have seen this coming.

Sad!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46882455)

https://images.wsj.net/im-861181

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46882461)

It is tiresome.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46882812)

I forget the name, but the Italian author he gave repeated interviews that were not recorded but were "paraphrased" Francis's statements were the main ones. There would be "bad" paraphrasing but then the Holy Father would go and do another similar interview months later.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46883263)

if he cannot play the media game, understand soundbites and spin, then he needs to Benedict himself asap

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46883025)

hes not a high-IQ theologian like Benedict or JP2 but he knows what he's doing

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46883086)

It's necessary to lie and pretend that Catholic Church now blesses fag marriage "unless [it] wants to be nuked by globohomo"?

Oh OK whew thank god "Pope" Francis "saved" Catholicism from being hated and attacked by kikes by, uh... pretending that fag marriage is cool now. Whew, thanks "Pope" Francis!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46883844)

https://twitter.com/WokePreacherTV/status/1673757798897942528?lang=en

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46883097)

Link to the existence of dogs being sinful in the eyes of God?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46883855)

Lol you're such a gay and petty little faggot, and boy do I know that when I see it

Also I like how you can't even pretend that I said anything wrong here, no "correction" was necessary you just felt the need to lash out and personally attack me anyway just because you're such a gay and petty little faggot

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46884226)

I don't even care what angle you're trying to argue here, or what your take is, but I know that you're in well above your head in a thread like this and I won't hesitate to point this out.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46884441)

Oh look, yet another poast where you're BRUTALLY taking me to task for being a know-nothing babbling retard on the subject matter of this thread -- and yet you've oddly still forgotten to actually point out a single thing I've said ITT which you think is "wrong"... wow this is getting a li'l kooky haha yeah

I take it all back, clearly you aren't just a petty little thin-skinned vengeful faggot nursing a weird personal grudge against a total stranger on the internet ;)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46884887)

I literally preempted and addressed this exact point right above when I said "and boy do I know that when I see it"

You're not doing too good ITT brother

So before we end this, anything I've said about Christianity ITT that you want to correct for the record or naw I'm just a "dumb faggot" or w/e and that's it we can stop there?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46884903)

everyone poasting above me is Jewish. every single person. even protestants know better than to fall for this shit

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5418979&forum_id=2#46885911)