VATICAN: PRIESTS CAN’T BLESS SAME-SEX UNIONS
The Vatican said Monday that priests could not bless same-sex unions, calling any such blessing “not licit.”
The ruling said that the church should be welcoming toward gay people, “with respect and sensitivity,” but not endorse their unions.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, issued the judgment in response to questions raised by some pastors and parishes that sought to be more welcoming and inclusive of gay couples.
The issue of inclusiveness came to the fore in recent years after the pope asked bishops to develop projects and proposals “so that those who manifest a homosexual orientation can receive the assistance they need to understand and fully carry out God’s will in their lives.” Blessings for samesex unions had emerged as one possibility, requiring official clarification.
The decision did not imply a judgment on people involved nor a form of “unjust discrimination, but rather a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite” of the sacrament of matrimony, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, the prefect of the congregation, said in an explanatory note. Ladaria wrote that Pope Francis, who has staunchly opposed same-sex marriage in the church, had given “his assent to the publication.”
In the United States, where more than 6 out of 10 Catholics support same-sex marriage, according to a 2019 Pew survey, many gay Catholics and their advocates mourned the announcement, and said it would inevitably lead to more gay people and those who support them leaving the church.
“The Vatican does what the Vatican does, and sometimes the Vatican really hurts people whose lives they are unfamiliar with,” said Jason Steidl, a theologian at St. Joseph’s College who is gay. “Pastorally, it’s a devastating pronouncement for LGBTQ people.”
Francis has repeatedly expressed support for gay people. Only a few months after his election in 2013, he said, “Who am I to judge?” when asked during a papal flight from Brazil about priests who might be gay. The pope also made headlines in October when he appeared to endorse same-sex civil unions. The Vatican later clarified that the pope believed that gay couples deserved civil protections, including legal rights and health care benefits, but that his comments had not marked a change in church doctrine.
The Catholic Church considers homosexual acts “intrinsically disordered.”
In 2003, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ruled that the church’s “respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.”