VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has suggested there could be ways to bless same-sex unions, responding to five conservative cardinals who challenged him to affirm the Church’s teachings on homosexuality before a large gathering where LGBTQ+ Catholics They are on the agenda.
The Vatican on Monday released a letter Francis wrote to the cardinals on July 11 after receiving a list of five questions, or “dubia,” from them a day earlier.
In it, Francis suggests that such blessings could be studied if the blessing were not confused with sacramental marriage.
New Ways Ministries, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics, said the letter “significantly advances” efforts to make LGBTQ+ Catholics welcome in the church and is “a big straw” in their marginalization.
The Vatican maintains that marriage is an indissoluble union between a man and a woman.
As a result, he has long opposed gay marriage.
But even Francis has expressed support for civil laws that extend legal benefits to same-sex spouses, and Catholic priests in some parts of Europe have been blessing same-sex unions without Vatican censure.
Francis’ response to the cardinals, however, marks a change from the Vatican’s current official position.
In a 2021 explanatory note, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith flatly said that the church could not bless homosexual unions because “God cannot bless sin.”
In his new letter, Francis reiterated that marriage is the union between a man and a woman.
But responding to the cardinals’ question about homosexual unions and blessings, he said that “pastoral charity” requires patience and understanding and that, in any case, priests cannot become judges “who only deny, reject and exclude.”
Cardinal Joseph Zen, a staunch opponent of Beijing and the Vatican’s rapprochement attempts, presides over a vigil mass for Bishop Michael Yeung in Hong Kong, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019.AP
“For this reason, pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or more people, that do not convey an erroneous conception of marriage,” he wrote. “Because when you ask for a blessing you are expressing a request for help from God, a plea to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us live better.”
He pointed out that there are situations that objectively “are not morally acceptable.” But he said the same “pastoral charity” requires that people be treated as sinners who may not be entirely to blame for their situations.
Francis added that there is no need for dioceses or episcopal conferences to convert such pastoral charity into fixed norms or protocols, and said the issue could be addressed on a case-by-case basis “because the life of the Church runs through channels beyond the norms.” . .”
Cardinal Raymond Burke applauds during a press conference at the Italian Senate in Rome. Five conservative cardinals are challenging Pope Francis to affirm Catholic teaching on homosexuality and female ordination. AP
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministries, welcomed the Pope’s opening.
“The assignment for pastoral ministers to bless same-sex couples means that the church effectively recognizes that holy love can exist between same-sex couples, and the love of these couples reflects the love of God,” he said in a statement. “Those recognitions, while not exactly what LGBTQ+ Catholics would want, are a huge step forward toward fuller and more comprehensive equality.”
The five cardinals, all conservative prelates from Europe, Asia, Africa and America, had challenged Francis to affirm in his letter the Church’s teachings on homosexuals, the ordination of women, the authority of the Pope and other issues.
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, left, talks with Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.AP
They released the material two days before the start of a major three-week synod, or meeting, at the Vatican in which LGBTQ+ Catholics and their place in the church are on the agenda.
The signatories were some of Francis’ staunchest critics, all of them retired and belonging to the most doctrinaire generation of cardinals appointed by Saint John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI.
They were Cardinals Walter Brandmueller of Germany, former Vatican historian; Raymond Burke of the United States, whom Francis removed as president of the Vatican Supreme Court; Juan Sandoval of Mexico, retired archbishop of Guadalajara; Robert Sarah of Guinea, retired head of the Vatican liturgy office; and Joseph Zen, retired archbishop of Hong Kong.
Pope Francis, flanked by children from five continents, speaks from his study window to the faithful gathered for the traditional Sunday noon blessing in St. Peter’s Square on October 1.
Brandmueller and Burke were among four signatories to an earlier round of “dubia” to Francis in 2016, following his controversial openness to allowing divorced and civilly remarried couples to receive Communion.
So the cardinals were concerned that Francis’s position violated Church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. Francisco never responded to his questions and two of his co-signatories subsequently died.
Francisco responded this time.
The cardinals did not publish his response, but apparently found it so unsatisfactory that they rephrased their five questions, presented them to him again, and asked him to simply respond with a yes or no.
When he did not do so, the cardinals decided to make the texts public and issue a warning “notification” to the faithful.
The Vatican’s doctrinal office published its response a few hours later, although it did so without its introduction urging the cardinals not to be afraid of the synod.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn