Daily Nation Newspaper

Vatican says church cannot bless homosexual unions

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THE Catholic Church does not The have two the trucks power the to bless

same-sex and the Freightlin­er unions despite their registered “positive where elements”,

calling it impossible for God to "bless sin". The Vatican's responsibl­e for church doctrine, The Congregati­on for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). issued a response to the question. "Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex? "Negative'. read the re-spones by the CDF, signed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the doctrinal office.

THE Vatican on Monday said the Catholic Church does not have the power to bless same- sex unions despite their “positive elements”, calling it impossible for God to “bless sin”.

The Vatican’s powerful office responsibl­e for church doctrine, The Congregati­on for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), issued a response to the question, “Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?”

“Negative,” read the response by the CDF, signed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the doctrinal office.

Blessings are not allowed, wrote the CDF, because what is to be blessed needs to be “objectivel­y and positively ordered to receive and express grace, according to the designs of God inscribed in creation, and fully revealed by Christ the Lord”.

“For this reason, it is not licit to impart a blessing on relationsh­ips, or partnershi­ps, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissolub­le union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmissi­on of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex,” it wrote.

The CDF wrote that such relationsh­ips might have positive elements to be valued, but that did not make 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 office wrote that while God “never ceases to bless each of His pilgrim children in this world… he does not and cannot bless sin.”

The CDF denied that its declaratio­n was “a form of unjust discrimina­tion”. Instead, it said it was a “reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite and of the very nature of the sacramenta­ls, as the Church understand­s them.”

Early in his papacy, Pope Francis made the now-famous “Who am I to judge?” remark about homosexual­s trying to live a Christian life. But the pope continues to oppose gay marriage. -

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Pope Francis

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