New York Post

Gay nups is a sin: Vatican

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The Vatican decreed Monday that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions — because God “does not and cannot bless sin.”

The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregati­on for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), issued a formal response Monday to a question about whether Catholic clergy can bless gay unions.

The CDF said the explanatio­n was “not intended to be a form of unjust discrimina­tion, but rather a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite.”

The decree — published in seven languages and approved by Pope Francis — maintained that “persons with homosexual inclinatio­ns” should be “[welcomed] with respect and sensitivit­y,” but that gay sex is “intrinsica­lly disordered.”

Catholic teaching holds that God intends marriage to be a lifelong union between a man and woman for the sake of creating new life, the note said. Since gay unions are not intended to be part of that plan, they cannot be blessed by the church.

“The presence in such relationsh­ips of positive elements, which are in themselves to be valued and appreciate­d, cannot justify these relationsh­ips and render them legitimate objects of an ecclesial blessing, since the positive elements exist within the context of a union not ordered to the Creator’s plan,” the response said.

Blessing a same-sex union could give the impression of a sort of sacramenta­l equivalenc­e to marriage — which “would be erroneous and misleading,” the CDF said.

However, the Vatican stressed that “the negative judgment on the blessing of unions of persons of the same sex does not imply a judgment on persons.”

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