The Vatican's same-sex blessing approval: What is Pope Francis doing?

The Vatican surprised everyone Monday with a document approved by Pope Francis that invites priests to bless same-sex couples, so long as the blessing doesn't imply equivalence with the sacrament of marriage. The declaration from the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith supersedes a 2021 document that rejected the idea of blessing same-sex unions, because "God cannot bless sin." 

The eight-page declaration, "Fiducia supplicans: On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings," is Pope Francis' "most definitive step yet to make the Roman Catholic Church more welcoming to LGBTQ Catholics and more reflective of his vision of a more pastoral, and less rigid, church," The New York Times assessed. 

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the new head of the Vatican's powerful doctrinal office, said the document was prompted by the pope's recent reply to conservative cardinals about blessing same-sex relationships.

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The new declaration doesn't, and can't, change the church's "perennial teaching" that marriage is an "exclusive, stable and indissoluble union between a man and a woman," the document underscored. But it seeks to "broaden and enrich the meaning of blessings" beyond those dispensed in a formal liturgical setting, like a Catholic mass. 

Priests should not bless same-sex or other "irregular" couples in anything resembling a church rite or ritual, use wedding-like gestures or garments or words, or confer the blessing in connection with a same-sex civil union, the document cautions. But in more "spontaneous" situations, "when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it."

Caveats aside, conservative Catholics were not pleased with the new declaration. University of Notre Dame theologian Ulrich Lehner called it the Vatican's "most unfortunate public announcement in decades," and "an invitation to schism." Some LGBTQ Catholics lamented that it did not go further. What is Pope Francis trying to do with this new declaration?

What the commentators said

Pope Francis just put down a "landmark and milestone in the church's relationship with LGBTQ people that can't be overestimated or overstated," said Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of gay Catholic advocacy group New Ways Ministry. "This declaration is proof that church teaching can — and does — change." The conservative LifeSiteNews agreed that the pope is toying with "the unchangeable Catholic teaching that the church cannot bless sinful relationships." 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — "which has a large conservative contingent," the Times noted — disagreed. "The church's teaching on marriage has not changed, and this declaration affirms that," USCCB spokesperson Chieko Noguchi said.

"Conscientious Catholics" can see that the pope is carefully drawing within the lines of orthodoxy, but other Catholics won't, and "to me, the confusion looks deliberate," Michael Brendan Dougherty wrote at National Review. The underlying message is that "as long as it all remains informal, priests can do what they want" with same-sex blessings. "It's another one of these ways to approve of homosexual relations without actually saying we're approving of them," fellow traditionalist Catholic author Peter Kwasniewski agreed. 

On the other hand, "the new Vatican instructions could force a course correction to a number of Catholic bishops' conferences in Europe" that have published guidelines for more ritualized blessings of same-sex unions, Christopher White suggested at the National Catholic Reporter.

Everybody is making a big deal of this, but "there were no doctrine-based justifications for not doing it, because, in the Catholic Church, they also bless tanks, cars, tractors, even salt," Italian gay Catholic activist Innocenzo Pontillo told The Washington Post. "It's painful, though, that they should still feel compelled to reiterate: Remember, it’s not marriage! Look, we know it already."

What's next?

Catholic priests and bishops will have to interpret what the declaration means. Pope Francis doesn't plan to elaborate on "possible ways to regulate details or practicalities," the document says. "What has been said in this declaration regarding the blessings of same-sex couples is sufficient to guide the prudent and fatherly discernment of ordained ministers."

The pope has given "a much-needed pastoral response to Catholic same-sex couples in loving, committed and self-sacrificing relationships who desire God's presence and help," Fr. James Martin, who advocates for greater LGBTQ acceptance in the church wrote at Outreach. "And as a priest I look forward to blessing same-sex couples," as "I've waited years to do."

"I will never confer a blessing upon two men or two women who are involved in a sexual relationship that is by its nature gravely sinful," said Fr. Gerald Murray, an outspoken conservative in New York. "The pope has placed priests who uphold Catholic doctrine about the immorality of sodomy and adultery into a terrible position."

While priests figure that out, the pope's move "is unlikely to agitate most Catholics in the American pews," the Times reported. According to a 2019 Pew Research survey, 61% of U.S. Catholics who go to mass every week support same-sex marriage.