ROME — Pope Francis has officially approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, with a new document outlining a radical change in Vatican policy by insisting that people seeking God’s love and mercy should not be subjected to a “thorough moral analysis” to receive it.
Documents from the Vatican’s doctrinal office, released Monday, describe a letter Francis sent to two conservative cardinals that was published in October.
In that initial response, Francis suggested that such a blessing could be offered in some circumstances if they did not confuse the ceremony with the sacrament of marriage.
The new document reiterates that rationale and elaborates on it, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman.
And it emphasizes that the blessing cannot be awarded at the same time as a civil union, using the prescribed rituals or even with the clothes and gestures that belong to marriage.
But it says requests for such blessings cannot be refused period.
Pope Francis gives a blessing at the end of his weekly general audience, in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, December 13, 2023. REUTERS
It offers a broad definition of the term “blessing” in Scripture to assert that those seeking a transcendent relationship with God and seeking His love and mercy should not be subjected to a “thorough moral analysis” as a prerequisite to receiving it.
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“Ultimately, blessings offer people a way to increase their faith in God,” the document said. “The request for blessing, thus, expresses and fosters openness to transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live.”
He added: “It is the seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered.”
The Vatican maintains that marriage is an indissoluble union between a man and a woman. As a result, it has long opposed same-sex marriage.
And in 2021, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said categorically that the church cannot bless the union of two men or two women because “God cannot bless sin.”
The document raised objections, which Francis apparently blindsided by it even though he had technically approved its publication. Shortly after it was published, he removed the officers responsible for it and began laying the groundwork for reversal.
A representative of Dignity USA, an LGBTQ+ Catholic group, wears a pin on his pilgrim credentials lanyard, outside the Sao Vicente de Paulo Parish Social Center, after Pope Francis visited him, in the Serafina neighborhood of Lisbon, Friday, August 4. , 2023. AP
In the new document, the Vatican said the church must distance itself from “doctrinal or disciplinary schemes, especially when they lead to narcissistic and authoritarian elitism where instead of evangelization, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one spends one’s energy in check and verify.”
It emphasizes that people in “irregular” unions – gay or straight – are in a state of sin. But it says that that should not keep them from God’s love or mercy.
“Therefore, when people ask for a blessing, a thorough moral analysis cannot be placed as a precondition for granting it,” the document said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
