Hint of Vatican gay marriage shif​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​t

By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press
Published 4th Oct 2023, 07:41 BST
Updated 4th Oct 2023, 07:44 BST
Pope Francis, flanked by children from the five continents, speaks during Sunday’s noon blessing in St Peter’s Square at The Vatican (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)Pope Francis, flanked by children from the five continents, speaks during Sunday’s noon blessing in St Peter’s Square at The Vatican (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)
Pope Francis, flanked by children from the five continents, speaks during Sunday’s noon blessing in St Peter’s Square at The Vatican (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)
​Pope Francis has suggested there could be ways to bless same-sex unions, responding to five conservative cardinals who challenged him to affirm church teaching on homosexuality ahead of a big meeting where LGBT+ Catholics are on the agenda.

The Vatican on Monday published a letter Francis wrote to the cardinals on July 11 after receiving a list of five questions, or “dubia”, from them a day earlier. It suggests such blessings could be studied if they did not confuse the blessing with sacramental marriage.

The Vatican holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman and has long opposed gay marriage, but even Francis has voiced support for civil laws extending legal benefits to same-sex spouses, and Catholic priests in parts of Europe have been blessing same-sex unions without Vatican censure.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Francis's response to the cardinals marks a reversal from the Vatican's current official position. In an explanatory note in 2021, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said the church could not bless gay unions because “God cannot bless sin”.

The New Ways Ministry advocacy group said the letter “significantly advances” efforts to make LGBT+ Catholics welcomed in the church and “one big straw towards breaking the camel's back” in their marginalisation.

In his new letter, Francis reiterated that matrimony is a union between a man and a woman, but responding to the cardinals' question about homosexual unions and blessings, he said “pastoral charity” requires patience and understanding and that priests cannot become judges “who only deny, reject and exclude”.

“For this reason, pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of benediction, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage,” he wrote.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Because when a benediction is requested, it is expressing a request for help from God, a plea to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us to live better.”

He said there are situations that are objectively “not morally acceptable”, but the same “pastoral charity” requires that people be treated as sinners who might not be fully at fault for their situations.

Related topics:Pope FrancisEurope