Pope Says Priests Can Bless Same-Sex Couples

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

VATICAN CITY (Worthy News) – In a controversial move upsetting conservative clergy, Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples.

A new document explains a radical change in Vatican policy by insisting that people seeking “God’s love and mercy” shouldn’t be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” to receive it, despite the Bible viewing marriage as between a man and a woman.

The document from the Vatican’s doctrine office, released Monday, elaborates on a letter Francis sent to two conservative cardinals that was published in October. In that preliminary response, Francis suggested such blessings could be offered under some circumstances if they didn’t confuse the ritual with the sacrament of marriage.

The new document stresses that to avoid “any form of confusion or scandal,” blessings given to a couple “in an irregular situation” or “same-sex couples“ must be non-liturgical in nature. And, they 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 added.

The document from the Vatican’s doctrine office, released Monday, elaborates on a letter Francis sent to two conservative cardinals that was published in October.

In that preliminary response, Francis suggested such blessings could be offered under some circumstances if they didn’t confuse the ritual with the sacrament of marriage.

He reaffirmed earlier this year that homosexuality “is not a crime” but that any sexual act outside of marriage is “a sin.”

“UNJUST LAWS”

Francis defined it as “unjust” laws that criminalize homosexuality or homosexual activity and urged church members, including bishops, to show “tenderness” as God does with each of his children.

“We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity. Being homosexual is not a crime. It is not a crime.”

However, “Yes, but it is a sin. Fine, but first let us distinguish between a sin and a crime. It’s also a sin to lack charity with one another,” he added in published remarks.

The decision to bless same-sex couples is the latest in a series of controversial moves blessed by the pope.

The Vatican recently said that transgender people can be baptized in the Catholic Church after the pope already reached out to other members of the LGBTQ+ community, which uses the rainbow as its logo.

“A transgender person, even if they have undergone hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery, can receive baptism under the same conditions as other faithful, if there are no situations in which there is a risk of generating a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful,” a Vatican office said.

The document was a response to six questions that Bishop Jose Negri of Santo Amaro in Brazil sent to the Vatican in July regarding LGBTQ+ people’s involvement in routine Catholic practices and released by the Vatican’s Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith.

The document said Pope Francis had approved it on October 31.

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