ROME (AP) – The Vatican decreed on Monday that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions, as God “cannot bless sin”
The Vatican’s orthodox office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response on Monday to a question about whether Catholic clergy can bless gay unions.
The answer, contained in a two-page explanation published in seven languages and approved by Pope Francis, was “negative”.
The decree distinguished between the Church’s welcome and blessings to gays, which was sustained, but not their unions, since any sacramental recognition could be mistaken for marriage.
The Vatican says that gays should be treated with dignity and respect, but that gay sex is “inherently disordered”. Catholic teaching affirms that marriage, a lifelong union between a man and a woman, is part of God’s plan and aims at creating a new life.
Since gay unions have no intention of being part of that plan, they cannot be blessed by the church, the document said.
“The presence in such relationships of positive elements, which in themselves must be valued and appreciated, cannot justify these relationships and make them legitimate objects of an ecclesial blessing, since the positive elements exist in the context of an unordered union to the flat Creator, ”said the reply.
God “does not bless and cannot bless sin: He blesses the sinful man, so that he recognizes that he is part of his plan of love and allows himself to be changed by him”, he said.
Francis endorsed the provision of legal protection for same-sex couples in same-sex unions, but this refers to the civil sphere, not within the church. These comments were made during an interview with a Mexican broadcaster, Televisa, in 2019, but were cut by the Vatican until they appeared in a documentary last year.
In the new document and an unsigned accompanying article, the Vatican said questions have been raised about the blessing of same-sex unions in recent years and after Francis insisted on the need to better welcome and accompany gays into the church.
In the article, the Vatican emphasized the “fundamental and decisive distinction” between gay individuals and gay unions, noting that “the negative judgment about the blessing of same-sex unions does not imply a judgment about people”.
But he explained the reason for prohibiting the blessing of such unions, noting that any union that involves sexual activity outside of marriage cannot be blessed because it is not in a state of grace, or “ordered to receive and express the good that is pronounced and given by the blessing. ”
And he added that the blessing of a same-sex union can give the impression of a kind of sacramental equivalence to marriage. “That would be erroneous and misleading,” said the article.