Pope Francis Approves Blessing of Same-Sex Couples

Pope Francis Approves Blessing of Same-Sex Couples

Pope Francis Approves Blessing of Same-Sex Couples: In a significant shift in the church’s approach to LGBTQ+ people, the catholic church head, Pope Francis has on Monday approved a measure that will allow Roman Catholic priests to bless gay couples.

According to a document released Monday by the Vatican, the blessing can only be carried out under the condition that they are not part of regular Church rituals or liturgies, nor at the same time as a civil union.

Pope Francis’s recent move however expands his October invitation to bless same-sex couples and moves away from the Vatican Doctrin Office’s 2021 opinion that forbade such blessing, stating that God “cannot bless sin.”

The new ruling says it is opening “the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex” although says it is leaving decisions to “the prudent and fatherly discernment of ordained ministers.”

In a Declaration titled “Fiducia Supplicans”, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith provided “a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings, which is closely linked to a liturgical perspective.”

“It is precisely in this context that one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage,” stated the Catholic Church leadership.

“This Declaration is also intended as a tribute to the faithful People of God, who worship the Lord with so many gestures of deep trust in his mercy and who, with this confidence, constantly come to seek a blessing from Mother Church.”

The document goes on to state that “when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it” and that “those seeking a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection.”