ROME (AP) – The Vatican on Monday ruled that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions because God “cannot bless sin.”
The Vatican’s Orthodoxy, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on Monday issued a formal response to a question as to whether Catholic clergy can bless gay unions.
The answer, contained in a two-page explanation, published in seven languages and approved by Pope Francis, was ‘negative’.
The decision distinguished between welcoming and blessing gay people upheld by the church but not their unions, as such sacramental recognition could be confused with marriage.
The Vatican believes that gay people should be treated with dignity and respect, but that gay sex is ‘intrinsically disturbed’. According to Catholic teaching, marriage, a lifelong commitment between husband and wife, is part of God’s plan and intended to create new life.
Since gay unions are not meant to be part of the plan, it cannot be blessed by the church, the document reads.
‘The presence in such relationships of positive elements, which in themselves must be appreciated and appreciated, can not justify these relationships and make them legal objects of a church blessing, since the positive elements exist within the context of a unity which was not commanded to the Creator. plan, ”is the answer.
God “does not sin and he cannot sin: He blesses the sinful man so that he can realize that he is part of his love plan and can be changed by him,” he said.
Francis endorsed giving gay couples legal protection in same-sex unions, but it refers to the civil sphere, not within the church. This comment was made during an interview with a Mexican broadcaster, Televisa, in 2019, but was cut by the Vatican until it appeared in a documentary last year.
While the documentary favored the context, Francis referred to the stance he took when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires and lawmakers in the country were considering approving gay marriage, which he and the Catholic Church opposed. The then cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio rather supported the provision of legal protection for gay people in stable unions through a so-called ‘civil society law’.
Francis told Televisa: “Homosexuals have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. He talked about families with gay children and said: ‘You can not kick someone out of a family or make their lives miserable for this. What we must have is a civil union law; so they are legally covered. ”
In the new document and an accompanying unsigned article, the Vatican said questions were being asked about whether the church should bless unions on the same sacraments in a sacramental way over the past few years, and after Francis insisted on the need for gay better to welcome and accompany people. in the church.
In the article, the Vatican emphasized the “fundamental and decisive distinction” between gay individuals and gay unions, pointing out that “the negative judgment on the blessing of unions of persons of the same sex does not imply judgment on persons”.
But this explains the reason for the ban on the blessing of such unions, and notes that any association that involves sexual activities outside of marriage cannot be blessed because it is not in a state of grace, or ‘commanded to goods that are expressed, received and expressed. and given by the blessing. ”
And it added that the blessing of a union of the same sex can create the impression of a kind of sacramental equality to marriage. “That would be wrong and misleading,” the article said.
In 2003, the same Vatican office issued a similar decision, saying the church’s respect for gay people “could in no way lead to the approval of homosexual behavior or the legal recognition of homosexual unions.”
The Vatican then reasoned to do so, not only ‘deviant behavior’, but also an equality to marriage, which according to the church is an insoluble relationship between man and woman.