Pope says Catholics can now bless same-sex couples

Zim Now Writer

Pope Francis has formally permitted priests to bless same-sex couples, with a new document explaining a radical change in Vatican policy by offering a blessing to same sex marriages.

In a document from the Vatican’s office released on Monday, Pope Francis said requests for blessings for same-sex couples should not be denied full stop.

It offers an extensive and broad definition of the term “blessing” in Scripture to insist that people seeking a transcendent relationship with God and looking for his love and mercy should not be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” as a precondition for receiving it.

“Ultimately, a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God,” the document said.

“The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live.

“It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered,” reads the document.

The document marks the latest gesture of outreach from a pope who has made welcoming LGBTQ+ Catholics a hallmark of his papacy.

The Vatican holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman. As a result, it has long opposed same-sex marriage.

In the new document, the Vatican said the church must shy away from “doctrinal or disciplinary schemes, especially when they lead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism “whereby instead of evangelising, one analyses and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying.

The letter further stated that people in “irregular” unions of extramarital sex, gay or straight, are in a state of sin but it said that shouldn’t deprive them of God’s love or mercy.

“The significance of this news cannot be overstated,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which supports LGBTQ+ Catholics. “It is one thing to formally approve same-gender blessings, which he had already pastorally permitted, but to say that people should not be subjected to ‘an exhaustive moral analysis’ to receive God’s love and mercy is an even more significant step.

“Even when a perso’'s relationship with God is clouded by sin, he can always ask for a blessing, stretching out his hand to God,” the document said.

“Thus, when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it,” further reads the document.

The Rev. James Martin, who advocates for a greater welcome for LGBTQ+ Catholics, praised the new document as a “huge step forward” and a “dramatic shift” from the Vatican’s 2021 policy.

“Along with many Catholic priests, I will now be delighted to bless my friends in same-sex marriages,” he said in an email.

Traditionalists, however, were outraged. The traditionalist blogger Luigi Casalini of Messa in Latino (Latin Mass) blog wrote that the document appeared to be a form of heresy.

“The church is crumbling,” he wrote.