Responding to the question, or dubium, “Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?” which came from priests and lay faithful “who require clarification and guidance concerning a controversial issue,” the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responded “negative” in a statement published on March 15.
The congregation added, however, that homosexual men and women must be respected, but that any form of blessing a same-sex union is illicit; the individuals, however, may still receive a blessing.
“It is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage—i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life— as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex,” the doctrinal office said in a page-and-a-half explanatory note accompanying the statement.
“The Christian community and its pastors are called to welcome with respect and sensitivity persons with homosexual inclinations and will know how to find the most appropriate ways, consistent with church teaching, to proclaim to them the gospel in its fullness,” the explanatory note said.
No negative judgment on gay people, but no blessing of gay unions
The clarification “does not preclude the blessings given to individual persons with homosexual inclinations, who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the revealed plans of God as proposed by Church teaching.”
The congregation’s statement said, “Rather, it declares illicit any form of blessing that tends to acknowledge their unions as such. In this case, in fact, the blessing would manifest not the intention to entrust such individual persons to the protection and help of God, in the sense mentioned above, but to approve and encourage a choice and a way of life that cannot be recognised as objectively ordered to the revealed plans of God.”
The statement was issued days before the launch of a yearlong reflection on Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) that will focus on the family and conjugal love on March 19, the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which affirmed Church teaching on family life and marriage, but also underlined the importance of the Church meeting people where they are in order to help guide them on a path of discernment and making moral decisions.
The doctrinal congregation said in its note that some Church communities had promoted ‘plans and proposals for blessings of unions of persons of the same sex,’ and that ‘such projects are not infrequently motivated by a sincere desire to welcome and accompany homosexual persons, to whom are proposed paths of growth in faith’
The doctrinal congregation said in its note that some Church communities had promoted “plans and proposals for blessings of unions of persons of the same sex,” and that “such projects are not infrequently motivated by a sincere desire to welcome and accompany homosexual persons, to whom are proposed paths of growth in faith.”
In fact, the question of blessing same-sex unions arose from this “sincere desire to welcome and accompany homosexual persons” as indicated by Pope Francis at the conclusion of the two synodal assemblies on the family, it said.
That invitation, the congregation stressed, was for communities “to evaluate, with appropriate discernment, projects and pastoral proposals directed to this end,” and in some cases, those proposals included blessings given to the unions of persons of the same sex.
The doctrinal congregation said the Church does not and cannot have the power to impart her blessing on such unions and, therefore, “any form of blessing that tends to acknowledge their unions as such” is illicit.
The congregation said that such blessings are illicit for three reasons: In addition to implying “a certain imitation or analogue of the nuptial blessing” imparted to a man and a woman united in the sacrament of matrimony (paragraph 251 of Amoris Laetitia), there is the nature and value of blessings; blessings belong to “sacramentals, which are ‘liturgical actions of the Church’ that require consonance of life with what they signify and generate,” so “a blessing on a human relationship requires that it be ordered to both receive and express the good that is pronounced and given by the blessing;” and, “the order that makes one fit to receive the gift is given by the ‘designs of God inscribed in creation, and fully revealed by Christ the Lord.’”
It reiterated that the Church teaches that ‘men and women with homosexual tendencies ‘must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided’.’
The Church does not have power over God’s designs nor is she “the arbiter of these designs and the truths they express, but their faithful interpreter and witness.”
It said, “Only those realities which are in themselves ordered to serve those ends are congruent with the essence of the blessing imparted by the Church. As such, it is illicit to bless any relationship or partnership that is outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open to the transmission of life.”
Declaring “the unlawfulness of blessings of unions between persons of the same sex is not therefore, and is not intended to be, a form of unjust discrimination, but rather a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite and of the very nature of the sacramentals, as the Church understands them,” the doctrinal office said.
It reiterated that the Church teaches that “men and women with homosexual tendencies ‘must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided’.”
As such, the doctrinal note makes a “fundamental and decisive distinction between persons and the union. This is so that the negative judgment on the blessing of unions of persons of the same sex does not imply a judgment on persons,” it said.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said, “God himself never ceases to bless each of his pilgrim children in this world, because for him ‘we are more important to God than all of the sins that we can commit’,” but, “he does not and cannot bless sin: he blesses sinful man, so that he may recognise that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him. He in fact ‘takes us as we are, but never leaves us as we are’.”
No one excluded from pastoral concern of the Church
Responding to the expressions of disappointment coming from some quarters to the statement of the doctrinal congregation, Kevin Cardinal Farrell, the prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, noted in an online press conference on March 18, “Nobody must ever be excluded from the pastoral care and love and concern of the Church.”
Asked if the unfavourable reaction by some to the doctrinal congregation’s statement could have any consequences on the dicastery’s work and plans for promoting the Amoris Laetitia Family Year dedicated to the family and conjugal love, Cardinal Farrell said, “I think that it is very important that we all understand that the pastoral life of the Church is open to all people.”
The cardinal said, “It is essential and very important that we always open our arms to receive and to accompany all people in their different stages of life and in their different life situations.”
He noted that what is not clear to most people and must be understood is that when the Church talks about marriage, it is referring specifically to sacramental marriage. A blessing, he said “is a sacramental that is related to the sacrament of marriage.”
People live and experience so many different situations and no matter where they are in life, even when they cannot participate fully in the life of the Church, ‘that does not mean that they are not to be accompanied by us and by the people of parishes,’ the cardinal said, stressing, ‘We accompany all people’
However, Cardinal Farrell pointed out that while the Church can only bless a sacramental marriage, it does not mean only those who are married in the Church may receive the benefits for pastoral care.
People live and experience so many different situations and no matter where they are in life, even when they cannot participate fully in the life of the Church, “that does not mean that they are not to be accompanied by us and by the people of parishes,” the cardinal said, stressing, “We accompany all people.”
While special emphasis will be made on the beauty and importance of Christian marriage during the Amoris Laetitia Family Year, he said the many dioceses, associations, programmes and movements that work with same-sex couples “will always work with them and accompany them.”
The cardinal pointed out, “There are situations where there are people who are divorced and remarried. The Church will accompany them with the hope that one day they will live totally in accordance with the Church’s teaching.”
Cardinal Farrell emphasised, “But I do want to insist that nobody, nobody must ever be excluded from the pastoral care and love and concern of the Church.” Vatican, CNS
