The Vatican makes a historic decision and will allow priests to bless homosexual couples or divorced and remarried couples
El Vatican has accepted this Monday the “possibility of blessing to couples “in an irregular situation” or of same sex without equating them to marriage, according to a document published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In the text, the prefect of that congregation, the Argentine cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, has argued that “"The possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples can be understood without officially validating their status or altering in any way the perennial teaching of the Church on Marriage.".
This initiative, which follows the will of the pope francisco, is a change in position compared to the one that the Congregation published in March 2021, then led by the Spanish Luis Ladaria Ferrer, and that she was opposed to the Catholic Church giving its blessing to same-sex unions.
The declaration is titled Fiducia Supplians: on the pastoral meaning of blessings and is the first that the Doctrine of the Faith, the ancient Holy Office, publishes in the last 23 years, since “Dominus Jesus" (2000)
First of all, it is a long text in which the origin and theological meaning of the act of blessing is analyzed, reviewing it from the Old Testament and in the Scriptures and that mainly in chapter 3 analyzes with clear and everyday language the possibility of blessing two people of the same sex who love each other and who wish to share their faith with the Christian community.
One step "historical" to accommodate those “realities that were separated
“In his mystery of love, through Christ, God communicates to his Church the power to bless. Granted by God to human beings and granted by them to their neighbors, the blessing is transformed into inclusion, solidarity and pacification. It is a positive message of comfort, care and encouragement.", reads in the text.
“A ritual for blessing couples in an irregular situation should neither be promoted nor provided for, but neither should the closeness of the Church be prevented or prohibited in every situation in which God's help is requested through a simple blessing", says the Doctrine of Faith.
“It is a historic step. “What they are doing is recognizing and welcoming into the Church those other realities that were separated within it.”, explains the journalist from ‘Religión Digital’, Jesus Pretty. "“They have put the effort to start reflecting changes that people were asking for and that cost nothing”, Add Quite.
However, despite the official opening of the blessing of these couples, the Vatican keep watching "inadmissible" any "“rite or prayer that may create confusion between what constitutes marriage.”, such as those carried out by the German church, which has been offering for several years “acts of blessing» despite the criteria of Roma and enough care has been taken not to equip it.
Despite being an advance, the Church continues to discriminate against homosexual people.
