The Vatican’s declaration that same-sex unions are a sin that the Roman Catholic Church cannot bless was no surprise to LGBTQ Catholics in the United States – yet it went deep.
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, said her membership of the organization also includes same-sex couples who have been together for decades and persevere in their love for each other in the face of prejudice and family rejection.
“The fact that our church at its highest levels cannot recognize the grace in it and can not show any kind of blessing to these couples is just tragic,” she said.
On Monday, she responded to a formal statement from the Vatican’s Orthodox Church, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying that Roman Catholic clergy should not bless such unions because God “cannot bless sin.” It was approved by Pope Francis.
“If sin is explicitly included in this statement, it will bring us back to zero,” said Ross Murray, who oversees religious issues for the LGBTQ rights group GLAAD.
He expressed dismay that ‘the ability for us to live our lives fully and freely is still seen as an insult to the church or, worse, an insult to God, who created us and knows and loves us. . ‘
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the New Ways Ministry, which advocates for greater acceptance of LGBTQ in the church, said that if the priests who had already blessed unions of the same sex would do so, Catholics who were moved laymen could take place.
“If priests and pastoral ministers no longer feel they can perform such a blessing, the Catholic laity will intervene and perform their own rituals,” DeBernardo said. “The toothpaste is outside the tube, and it cannot be put back inside.”
Rev. Bryan Massingale, an openly gay Catholic priest and professor of theology and social ethics at Fordham University, said priests who want to do a pastoral outreach to the gay and lesbian community will continue to do so unless it is equal. will be more under the table … than before. ”
For Catholics in same-sex relationships, he said, the Vatican’s new message would hurt.
“Every human being is born with this innate desire to love,” he said. “For those who are members of the same sex … that it is described as inherent or innate sin without any qualification, it is devastating.”
The Vatican teaches that gays and lesbians should be treated with dignity and respect, but that gay sex is “intrinsically disturbed” and that same-sex unions are sinful.
Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, said these doctrines, compiled, are problematic.
“It wanders in the mind that the hierarchy can confirm that LGBTQ + people are made in the image of God, but that their unions are a sin,” she said in an email. “Are they made in the image of God, with the exception of their hearts? With the exception of their abilities and tendencies to love? ‘
Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the U.S. NETWORK lobby for Catholic social justice and an advocate for greater LGBTQ inclusion in the church, said she was relieved that the Vatican’s statement was not harsher.
She interpreted it, saying, “You can bless the individuals (in a union of the same sex), you just can not bless the contract.”
“So it is possible that you may have a ritual where individuals are blessed to be dedicated.”
The Vatican’s ruling has been welcomed by some church conservatives, such as Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League in New York.
‘There will be no recognition of homosexual unions or marriages by the Catholic Church. This is non-negotiable. End of story, ”he said.
“Pope Francis has been under great pressure by gay activists, inside and outside the church, to give the green light to gay marriage,” Donohue added, calling the statement Monday ‘the most decisive rejection of the efforts ever written. ‘
Francis endorses legal protection for married couples, but it is in the civil sphere and not in the church.
Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean advocate for the sexual abuse of gay victims, reported in 2018 that the pope told him when he met Francis, “God made you that way, and he loves you.”
On Monday, Cruz said the Vatican officials who issued the new statement “are completely in a world of their own, away from people and trying to defend the indefensible.”
He called for a change in the leadership of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying it undermined Francis’ efforts to create a more inclusive church.
“If the church and the CDF do not move forward with the world, Catholics will continue to flee.” he said.
In Francis’ homeland, Argentina, LGBTQ activist Esteban Paulon said earlier statements by the pope expressing empathy and understanding for gays and lesbians were merely gestures without any official weight.
“These were not institutional rulings,” said Paulon, executive director of the Institute of Public Policy LGBT +. “To say that homosexual practice is a sin takes us back 200 years and promotes hate speech that is unfortunately on the rise in Latin America and Europe.”
The largest LGBTQ rights group in Chile, the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, condemned the decision as a ‘homophobic and anti-Christian act’ from within the Catholic hierarchy.
Spokesman Oscar Rementería contrasted the strict rhetoric of the Vatican against same-sex marriage with the numerous documented cases of Catholic leaders committing sexual abuse of children by clergy.
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Associated Press writers Eva Vergara in Santiago, Chile; Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Nicole Winfield in Rome and Mariam Fam in Cairo contributed to this report.
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