The Vatican said Monday that Pope Francis has authorized priests to bless same-sex couples, his most definitive step yet to make the Roman Catholic Church more welcoming to LGBTQ Catholics and more reflective of his vision of a more pastoral and less rigid Church.
The Vatican has long said it cannot bless same-sex couples because it would undermine the Church’s doctrine that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
But the new rule makes clear that blessing a same-sex couple is not the same as a sacrament of marriage, a formal ceremonial rite. He also emphasized that it was not a blessing for the relationship and that, to avoid confusion, blessings should not be given during or in connection with the ceremony of a civil or same-sex union, or when there are “clothes, gestures or words that are specific to a marriage.
Blessings, on the other hand, are best communicated, says the Vatican, during a meeting with a priest, a visit to a shrine, during a pilgrimage or in the form of a prayer recited in a group.
The new rule was published in a statement, a rare and important Vatican document, by the Church’s doctrine office and presented by its head, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who said the statement did not amend “the traditional doctrine of the Church on marriage”. “, because it did not authorize any liturgical rite that could be confused with the sacrament of marriage.
“It is precisely in this context,” wrote Cardinal Fernández, “that we can understand the possibility of blessing couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the teaching eternal of the Church on marriage”.
In his introduction to the declaration, signed and approved by Pope Francis, Cardinal Fernández nevertheless recognized that expanding the scope of beneficiaries of blessings constituted “a real development” and an “innovative contribution to the pastoral sense of blessings.” He said the decision was “based on the pastoral vision of Pope Francis.”
In recent decades, many Christian denominations have moved to allow blessings and marriages of same-sex couples and to ordain openly gay priests. But debates over the issue have led to conservative splits within the Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and other churches. The Roman Catholic Church has long been considered one of the least likely to change its position.
But Francis, who turned 87 on Sunday, has sought in recent weeks to reignite debate on the Church’s most sensitive subjects, by repressing its most incessant conservative critics. The new declaration amounts to an executive order outside of the more deliberative process it fostered.
“The request for blessing,” says the declaration, “expresses and nourishes openness to transcendence, mercy and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is not nothing in the world in which we live. It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nourished and not hindered.
Advocates for a Church more welcoming to same-sex couples agree.
“This new declaration opens the door to non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples, something previously prohibited to bishops, priests and deacons,” said the Rev. James Martin, a prominent advocate for LGBTQ Catholics who spoke met frequently. with Francis, a fellow Jesuit, and spoke to him about the need for the Church to better recognize LGBTQ Catholics. “Along with many priests, I will now be delighted to bless my friends in same-sex unions.”
There has been an explosion of activity on the LGBTQ issue in recent months from the Doctrine of the Faith office, led by Cardinal Fernández. This comes after many advocates for LGBTQ Catholics were frustrated by the lack of progress, or even recognition, during the period. a big meeting in October of bishops and laity which will be repeated next year and which could potentially lead to major changes in the Church.
On October 31, Francis approved another document from Cardinal Fernández’s department, clarifying that transgender people can be baptized, serve as godparents and be witnesses at religious weddings.
Earlier in October, the Vatican released Francis’ private response to conservative cardinals’ doubts about the possibility of blessing same-sex couples. Francis instead suggested such blessings were a possibility, apparently reversing a 2021 Vatican decision that harshly opposed the blessing of same-sex unions, arguing that God “cannot bless sin.”
While the pope went on to support the Church’s position that marriage could only exist between a man and a woman, he said priests should show “pastoral charity” when it came to requests for blessings. But Francis also made clear that he did not want the blessing of a same-sex couple by an ordained minister to become mere protocol, as had been the case in parts of the liberal German Church that support the blessings for people of the same sex. He urged priests to be open to “channels beyond the norm.”
Indeed, the heart of the new statement, “Fiducia Supplicans: On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings,” is a resistance to a rigid Church, which excludes people from blessings because they fail doctrinal or moral litmus tests, but which also turns blessings—including to same-sex couples—into another stuffy formality. Above all, Francis wants spontaneity and closeness with the faithful, which he considers vital for the survival of the Church.
The blessing “should not become a liturgical or semi-liturgical act, similar to a sacrament,” the statement said. “Such ritualization would constitute a serious impoverishment because it would subject a gesture of great value in popular piety to excessive control, depriving ministers of freedom and spontaneity in their pastoral accompaniment of people’s lives.”
He also does not want blessings to be considered a substitute for the sacrament of marriage for same-sex couples or other couples in an “illegal situation.”
Conservatives in Africa, where bishops are highly skeptical of the Church’s opening to LGBTQ people, and in North America, where much of the opposition to Pope Francis is funded, have expressed reservations .
“After today’s statement,” John Oballa, bishop of Kenya’s Ngong diocese, southwest of the capital Nairobi, said Monday, “we are sure that many questions will come from the congregation” about what all this means. “They would like to know how far this goes, what implications it will have and what it portends for the future. »
LifeSite News, a conservative media outlet based in North America, wrote Monday that the document was published “in contradiction to the immutable Catholic teaching that the Church cannot bless sinful relationships.”
But the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has a large conservative contingent, accepted the new rule, noting that it marked a distinction between sacramental blessings like marriage and a pastoral blessing for people seeing “God’s loving grace in their life “.
“The Church’s teaching on marriage has not changed,” said Chieko Noguchi, a conference spokeswoman.
The rules constitute a clear opening towards LGBTQ Catholics.
The statement notes that the Vatican’s earlier ruling, in 2021, emphasized that the Church does not have the power to bless human relationships that do not conform to “God’s plans,” including sexual relations outside of marriage and homosexual unions that presumed “to be marriage.
But the new Vatican statement says this is too narrow a view of blessings, which are meant to evoke God’s presence in all facets of life and can be bestowed on people, objects of worship , workplaces, ships and much more. He argues that blessings are “a pastoral resource to be valued rather than a risk or problem.”
In a secular age when the Church is often on the defensive, the Vatican apparently did not want to deprive itself of one of its most effective tools for connecting with a popular piety that Francis sees as essential for the future from the church.
By restricting blessings, the new statement asserts, “there is the danger that a pastoral gesture so valued and widespread will be subject to too many moral conditions” and “eclipse” its intention to express God’s love.
He adds: “So when people ask for a blessing, exhaustive moral analysis should not be a prerequisite for granting it. For those who seek a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection.
The issue of blessing same-sex couples has exploded in recent years, particularly in Germany, where priests regularly offer blessings despite resistance from the Vatican.
“The importance of the Vatican’s new statement cannot be understated,” Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based group that advocates on behalf of gay Catholics, said in a statement. He praised the pope’s decision not to subject blessings to a litmus moral test, which he called a measure “aimed at overturning the strict pastoral policing” applied by his predecessors.
Francis, who has received official criticism of doubts about his teaching on the issue from conservative critics but is also under constant pressure from liberals in Germany to approve same-sex unions, appears to be done with the issue.
“Beyond the guidance provided above,” the statement states, “no further responses should be expected on possible means of regulating the details or practicalities regarding blessings of this type.” »
Abdi Latif Dahir contributed reporting from Kenya.