Originally published October 3, 2023 7:24 am PDT
In a significant development, Pope Francis has shown a willingness to consider blessings for same-sex couples, provided they do not conflate with traditional marriage ceremonies.
In a letter penned last week and made public by the Vatican a week later, the Pope remarked, “Pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or several people, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage,” according to a report from the National Catholic Reporter (NCR).
This statement from Pope Francis was a response to queries posed by five retired conservative cardinals.
They sought clarity on several pressing topics, which are set to be deliberated upon in the upcoming Synod of Bishops.
The cardinals had aired their concerns earlier on Oct. 2, ahead of the Vatican releasing the Pope’s letter.
While staunchly supporting the church’s foundational belief that marriage is a union between a man and a woman intended for procreation, Pope Francis emphasized the importance of pastoral charity.
He noted, “Defending what the church teaches to be objective truth, he continued, does not mean that church leaders “become judges who only deny, reject, exclude.”
He went on to say that “[w]hen you ask for a blessing you are expressing a request for help from God, a prayer to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us live better.”
This recent letter from Pope Francis seems to pivot from a Vatican decree in March 2021, which explicitly stated that priests couldn’t bless same-sex unions because God “cannot bless sin.”
Additionally, Pope Francis has reopened discussions around the ordination of women to the priesthood, a topic that was deemed controversial and prohibited by Pope John Paul II in 1994.
Although he acknowledged John Paul’s 1994 proclamation that the church lacked the “authority” to ordain women, Francis questioned the clarity of the nature of a “definitive declaration.”
He summarized, “It is not a dogmatic definition, and yet it must be accepted by everyone. No one can contradict it publicly and yet it can be an object of study, as in the case of the validity of the ordinations in the Anglican communion.”
The Pope also cited teachings from the Second Vatican Council on the “priesthood of all believers,” emphasizing that it’s not feasible to consider the common priesthood of the laity as secondary or less valuable.
Shedding light on John Paul’s 1994 decree, Francis highlighted that the intention wasn’t to diminish women’s roles.
Quoting from John Paul’s 1988 apostolic letter, Francis stated that if the priestly function is “hierarchical,” it should not be perceived as dominating, but “is totally ordered to the holiness of the members of Christ.”
He added, “If this is not understood and the practical consequences of these distinctions are not drawn, it will be difficult to accept that the priesthood is reserved only for men and we will not be able to recognize women’s rights or the need for their participation, in various ways, in the leadership of the church.”
While addressing the blessings for gay couples, the Pope remarked that decisions motivated by pastoral prudence “do not necessarily become a norm.”
He said, “Canon law should not and cannot cover everything, and episcopal conferences should not pretend to do so with their documents and varied protocols, because the life of the church runs through many channels in addition to the regulations.”
