Pope Francis Approves Blessings For Same-sex Couples
Pope Francis has allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, with a new document issued on Monday explaining a radical change in Vatican policy.
BBC News reported that the head of the Roman Catholic Church said priests should be permitted to bless same-sex and “irregular” couples, under certain circumstances.
However, the Vatican said blessings should not be part of regular Church rituals or related to civil unions or weddings.
It added that it continues to view marriage as a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman.
The Vatican emphasized that blessings in question must be non-liturgical and 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.
It said people seeking a “blessing” should not be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” as a precondition for receiving it. The Vatican said:
Ultimately, a blessing offers people a means 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. It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered.
In the new document, the Vatican stressed that people in “irregular” unions of extramarital sex — gay or straight — are in a state of sin. But it said that shouldn’t deprive them of God’s love or mercy.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Church, who introduced the text, said that the new stance does not validate the status of same-sex couples in the eyes of the Catholic Church.
In 2021, the Pope said priests could not bless same-sex marriages because God cannot “bless sin”.
However, Pope Francis had suggested in October that he was open to having the Church bless same-sex couples.
More: Pindula News
