Vatican prohibits priests from blessing same-sex couples
"The Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless same-sex unions." Slamming the door, the all-powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith destroys the hopes placed in Francis by LGTBI Christians. In a harsh statement, the Vatican dicastery in charge of ensuring correct Catholic doctrine, chaired by a Spaniard, the Jesuit Luis Ladaria, says 'No' to the attempts of some episcopates, such as the German, favorable to offer some kind of blessing to same-sex couples who, considering themselves Catholic, wanted to share their union with the Church.
The refusal is emphatic: "It is not lawful to impart a blessing to relationships, or even stable couples, that imply a sexual practice outside of marriage," affirms the prefect, in a response to some 'dubium' (doubts) formulated by conservative ecclesiastical sectors . A response that throws overboard expressions of Pope Francis along the lines of "not judging" homosexuals, and in whose text, to make matters worse (and as Ladaria himself assures), the Pope himself "has been informed".
"There is no basis to assimilate or establish analogies, not even remote, between homosexual unions and God's plan for marriage and the family," emphasizes Doctrine of the Faith. Despite recognizing "a sincere will to welcome and support of homosexual people ", the letter makes it clear that" it is not lawful to impart a blessing to relationships, or even stable couples, that imply a sexual practice outside of marriage ", as" is the case of unions between people of the same sex " . And, it is inferred (although it is not said in the text), also to heterosexual unions outside of marriage.
"The presence in such relationships of positive elements, which in themselves are to be appreciated and valued, is still not capable of justifying them and making them the lawful object of an ecclesial blessing, because such elements are at the service of a union not ordered to the design of God ", underlines the Vatican dicastery, which once again makes it clear that" since blessings on persons are in relation to the sacraments, the blessing of homosexual unions cannot be considered lawful, inasmuch as it would be in a certain way an imitation or an analogy with the nuptial blessing. "
At the same time, Ladaria recalls that "the Christian community and the Pastors are called to welcome people with homosexual inclinations with respect and delicacy, and they will know how to find the most appropriate methods, consistent with ecclesial teaching, to proclaim the Gospel to them in its fullness" .
In fact, he adds, "the answer to dubium proposed does not exclude that blessings be imparted to individual persons with homosexual inclinations, who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the designs revealed by God as well as those proposed by ecclesial teaching, but it declares illegal all forms of blessing that tend to recognize their unions ".
The Church, concludes Doctrine of the Faith, "does not bless and cannot bless sin: it blesses sinful man." For all this, he concludes, "the Church does not have, nor can it have, the power to bless unions of people of the same sex."
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