Vatican has on Monday, March 15 declared that the Catholic Church or its priests cannot bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.”
The statement was made by Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) as a formal response to a question regarding the Church’s power to bless same-sex marriages. The two-page statement published in seven languages was approved by Pope Francis.
The decree distinguished between the church’s welcoming and blessing of gay people, which it upheld, but not their unions.
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While the Vatican said that the community should welcome gay people with “respect and sensitivity,” their unions would not receive the same embrace, as under Catholic teachings, marriages as per “God’s plan” should be between a man and a woman to create new life.
Since gay unions are not intended to be part of that plan, they cannot be blessed by the church, the document said.
It added;
For this reason, it is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage, as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex.
There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.
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Catholics generally are among the more accepting sects of Christianity when it comes to same-sex unions.
The Vatican went on to say that while it recognizes that “positive elements” are still present in such relationships — and that those elements are “valued and appreciated” — they “cannot justify these relationships and render them legitimate objects of the ecclesial blessing.”
The church and priests can still bless people who are gay who live in “fidelity,” the statement says. “Rather, it declares illicit any form of blessing that tends to acknowledge their unions.”
It said such blessings were not permissible even though they were “motivated by a sincere desire to welcome and accompany homosexual persons” and help them grow in the faith.
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The Vatican stressed;
God does not and cannot bless sin: He blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him.
Monday’s statement from the Vatican comes less than six months after revelations of Pope Francis‘ stunning endorsement of same-sex civil unions were made public.
He endorsed providing gay couples with legal protections in same-sex unions, but that is in reference to the civil sphere, not within the church.
His comments were made during an interview with a Mexican television station, Televisa, in 2019, but were cut by the Vatican until they appeared in a documentary last year.
Pope Francis in the 2019 interview for the documentary “Francesco” said;
Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. What we have to have is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered.
However, the current official stance of Catholic Church was greeted with disappointment on social media, especially by those who’d expected Pope Francis to break from tradition following comments made public last year that indicated his support for same-sex couples.
