Vatican has said the Catholic Church and its priests cannot bless same-sex marriages because God “cannot bless sin.”
The Vatican’s orthodoxy office -the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said it was responding to questions about gay unions. The two-page statement published in seven languages and approved by Pope Francis, banished same -sex marriages as sin.
“The blessing of homosexual unions cannot be considered licit,” the statement issued on Monday says, adding that “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.”
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.”
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, an LGBTQ-centered Catholic ministry, said the statement was disappointing but not surprising. Catholics, he said, will continue to find creative ways to bless the couples they love and support.
“What the Vatican doesn’t realize is that the Catholic faithful are not satisfied with that answer. Catholic people recognize the holiness of the love between committed same-sex couples and recognize this love as divinely inspired and divinely supported and thus meets the standard to be blessed.” USA TODAY quoted DeBernardo.
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.
“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God,” Francis said in a 2019 interview for the documentary “Francesco.” “What we have to have is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered.”
Francis made the comment during an interview with a Mexican broadcaster, Televisa. It was cut by the Vatican but later appeared in a documentary.