Vatican reiterates Church’s ban on blessing same-sex couples

The Vatican has forcefully reaffirmed its longstanding ban on blessing homosexual couples, dashing the hopes of many LGBTQ+ Catholics and their supporters.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) this past Monday issued -- in seven different languages -- something known as a responsum to a dubium (or question)that was submitted to its office regarding the practice.

The CDF was asked: "Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?" 

The doctrinal office’s blunt reply was simply, “RESPONSE: Negative.”

A one-and-half-page “explanatory note” immediately followed, saying the Catholic Church"declares illicit any form of blessing that tends to acknowledge their unions as such".

The note was signed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria SJ and Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, respectively the congregation’s prefect and secretary. It said the pope “gave his assent to the publication” of the responsum and the explanatory note.

The Vatican’s doctrinal officials stated that blessings are “sacred signs that resemble the sacraments" and, as such, "they signify effects, particularly of a spiritual kind".

"Consequently, in order to conform to the nature of sacraments, when a blessing is invoked on particular human relationships…  it is necessary that what is blessed be objectively and positively ordered to receive and express grace," they said.

"Confusion"

The authors said it’s precisely because of this that it is not possible to bless a sexual relationship outside of marriage, "i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life".

They acknowledge that there can be “positive elements” in such relations that “are in themselves to be valued and appreciated”.

But they said this “cannot justify these relationships” or make “legitimate objects of an ecclesial blessing” because “the positive elements exist within the context of a union not ordered to the Creator’s plan”.

Furthermore, the authors expressed a fear that such a Church blessing could be confused with a "nuptial blessing."

This week’s CDF prohibition is the first formal Vatican statement on same-sex unions since 2003. The new text, however, sounded more like an effort to preserve the sacrament of marriage, while defending the Vatican from any claims of "unjust discrimination".

The publication of the responsum comes in the wake of comments on civil unions that Pope Francis made in a documentary that was aired last October. 

The pope sparked worldwide controversy by saying he backed a civil union law that would ensure "legal coverage" for homosexual couples.

The CDF tried to avoid the controversy by approaching the question from a sacramental point of view. 

But the extremely firm tone of the responsum and explanatory note was also seen as a warning to "some ecclesial contexts" in which "plans and proposals for blessings of same-sex unions are being advanced".

Some associations and movements that support LGBTQ+ Catholics are moving forward with formal permission.

"There are indeed requests for the blessing of unions, but there is no structured liturgical proposal, nothing is formalized,” said Anthony Favier, former co-president of a French organization called the David & Jonathan Association.

“We have been able to refer such requests to the intelligence and discernment of some benevolent priests," he explained.

"Anger"

There’s the case of Bertrand, a French gay Catholic who is now 42 years old. He was part of such associations and became closer to a priest who agreed to bless him and his partner as a couple.

"We knew it was going to be complicated, but we had a priest who listened to us very well, who even found us a parish for the occasion,” he recalled.

“But the local diocese refused to allow the blessing to take place in a church," he said.

Instead, the ceremony took place in a private setting. And they were blessed by a priest from another diocese.

It appears that few priests in France will agree to bless same-sex unions. In any case, the number of such ceremonies is impossible to quantify.

"I don't think that the publication of such a declaration will put a stop to these blessings. They are a flow of life, and life cannot be stopped," says Jean-Michel Dunand, founder and prior of the Communion Béthanie, a contemplative community for “homosensitive” and transgender people.

The new Vatican text is mainly a source of anger, incomprehension and even embarrassment for many gay, lesbian and transgender Catholics.

Some said they preferred not to even comment on it. 

"On these controversial issues, we do not want to take an official position," explained a member of another French movement, “Devenir un en Christ” (Becoming One in Christ). 

"We prefer to remain in prayer and reflection."