The pontiff responded to the ‘deep concerns’ of five conservative cardinals (Picture: Getty Images/REX)
Pope Francis has suggested there could be ways to bless same-sex unions.
The pontiff, 86, has spent his time as leader of the Catholic Church slowly pushing the dial on once-taboo subjects for religious conservatives, such as atheism and immigration.
But LGBTQ+ rights have long been on his agenda, with a letter published yesterday by the Vatican suggesting priests should not ‘exclude’ same-sex couples.
The pope was pressed on whether blessing LGBTQ+ people could be done without altering the church’s teaching on marriage in a ‘dubia’, a request for clarity lodged with the Vatican.
In the response, dated September, the pontiff reaffirmed that ‘the Church has a very clear understanding of marriage: an exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to procreation’.
But he also advocated for ‘pastoral clarity’.
Pope Francis has gradually loosened up the Roman Catholic Church, to the annoyance of conservatives. Progressives, however, feel he’s slow at best (Picture: Getty Image/AFP)
‘The defence of objective truth is not the only expression of this charity; it also includes kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness and encouragement,’ he said.
‘Therefore, we cannot be judges who only deny, reject and exclude.’
For Pope Francis, this means priests must ‘adequately discern whether there are forms of benediction, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage’.
‘Because when a benediction is requested, it is expressing a request for help from God, a plea to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us to live better.’
New Ways Ministry, an LGBTQ Catholic outreach group, said Francis’ response ‘significantly advances’ efforts to make LGBTQ+ Catholics more welcome in the church.
Francis DeBernardo, the ministry’s executive director, said in a statement posted to X: ‘Though the Vatican’s latest statement about same-gender couples does not provide a full-fledged, ringing endorsement of blessing their unions, the document significantly advances Pope Francis’ work to include and affirm LGBTQ+ people.
One LGBTQ+ campaigner said the Pope’s response was ‘extraordinary news’ (Picture: Getty Images)
‘This new step… allows for pastoral ministers to administer such blessings on a case-by-case basis, advising that “pastoral prudence” and “pastoral charity” should guide to any who request a blessing.’
Jayne Ozanne, a British gay evangelical Anglican who is an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights in the church, also welcomed the response.
‘This is extraordinary news which underlines the new pastoral approach Pope Francis has urged towards LGBTQ+ people,’ she told Metro.co.uk.
‘It’s rather ironic that the Pope has got to this point ahead of many in the Church of England, particularly those who are doing all they can to block progress.
‘I agree with Pope that God’s love will always trump a legalistic approach to Christianity.’
The dubia was sent by five conservative cardinals who are mong Francis’ most vocal critics.
Francis has previously endorsed same-sex civil unions (Picture: Reuters)
The cardinals, Walter Brandmuller, Raymond Leo Burke, Juan Sandoval Iniguez, Robert Sarah and Joseph Zen Ze-kiu, had challenged him on July 10 to affirm church teaching on a raft of issues.
It focused on tomorrow’s assembly of bishops from around the world at the Vatican where hot-button issues such as the blessing of queer couples, promoting women to decision-making roles in the church and priestly celibacy are on the table.
Cardinal Burke said in a blog post yesterday that the cardinals were largely unsatisfied with the pope’s initial response and sent a second reworded dubia the following month detailing their ‘deepest concerns’.
Among them are topics that ‘are openly contrary to the constant doctrine and discipline of the Church, and that have generated and continue to generate great confusion and the falling into error among the faithful’.
‘Given the gravity of the matter,’ they asked the Vatican whether church teaching should be ‘reinterpreted according to the cultural changes’.
The Vatican later released a letter in Spanish dated September 25, signed by chief of doctrine Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, with Francis’ answers included (which were signed ‘Francis’).
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Local churches were canvassed for two years to hear concerns from rank-and-file faithful around the globe ahead of the assembly.
A working document for the meeting says ‘radical inclusion’ for LGBTQ+ Catholics and other people marginalised by the church is needed.
The assembly, known as a synod, will for the first time allow laypeople (non-ordained members of the church), including women, to attend and vote.
Bishops will come together once more in Rome next October after which Pope Francis will either support or reject their recommendations.
The Pope endorsed same-sex civil unions in 2020, saying that ‘homosexual people have the right to be in a family’.
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