The Church has no power to bless same-sex unions. They cannot be considered licit, according to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The Church cannot bless same-sex unions.
The Holy See: The Church cannot and does not have the power to bless same-sex unions. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responds negatively to the possibility of imparting a blessing to same-sex unions, noting that it "does not imply a judgment on the persons" involved.
The Church does not have the power to bless same-sex unions. Therefore, such blessings cannot "be considered licit," according to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which issued a response Monday to a dubium that had been filed.
It is not licit to bless same-sex unions.
Therefore, it is not licit for priests to bless homosexual couples who ask for some kind of religious recognition of their union. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has said that Pope Francis was informed and "gave his assent" to the publication of the Response and an accompanying Explanatory Note signed by the Prefect, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, and the Secretary, Archbishop Giacomo Morandi. The Holy See Press Office also published a commentary article on the Responsum ad dubium.
The statement expressed by the Holy See is based on concrete affirmations and some actual practices. The document places its Response in the context of the "sincere desire to welcome and accompany homosexual persons, to whom paths of growth in faith are proposed," as expressed also in the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia, which speaks of "the help they [those who manifest a homosexual orientation] need to fully understand and fulfill God´s will in their lives."
Therefore, pastoral plans and proposals in this regard, including those concerning the blessing of such unions, must be evaluated.
It does not imply judgment on the persons involved.
In the response of the Congregation for Doctrine, the distinction to be made between "persons" and "union" is fundamental. The negative response given to the blessing of a union does not, in fact, imply a judgment on the persons involved, who must be received "with respect, compassion and sensitivity", avoiding "every sign of unjust discrimination", as has already been written in the magisterial documents.
These are the motivations that are at the basis of the negative response. The first concerns the truth and value of blessings, which are "sacramental," liturgical actions of the Church that require that what is blessed be "objectively and positively ordered to receive and express grace, according to God´s designs inscribed in creation."
Relationships, however stable, "which involve sexual activity outside of marriage," that is, outside of "the indissoluble union of a man and a woman," open to the transmission of life, do not respond to the "designs of God," even if there are "positive elements" in those relationships.
Never to be confused with the sacrament of marriage.
This consideration refers not only to same-sex couples, but also to unions involving sexual activity outside of marriage. Another reason for the negative response is the risk that the blessing of same-sex unions may be erroneously associated with that of the sacrament of marriage. The Congregation for Doctrine concludes by pointing out that the response to the dubium does not exclude "blessings granted to individual persons with homosexual inclinations, who manifest the will to live in fidelity to God´s revealed plans," while declaring inadmissible "any form of blessing that tends to recognize their unions as such."
Qriswell Quero, Venezuelan, faithful husband and father of a family. Electronic engineer and missionary of the faith. Committed to the proclamation of the Gospel. Solid believer that there are always new beginnings. Whoever has God has nothing to stop him.
