Vatican Claims Church Cannot Bless Same-Sex Unions

The Vatican released a statement that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions because God “… cannot not bless sin.”

The statement, issued by the Vatican’s orthodoxy office Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, was in response to a formal question sent to the church about whether or not the Catholic clergy was able to bless gay unions.

The answer, published by the church and approved by Pope Francis, claimed that same-sex unions were not part of God’s plan for the human race, and that blessing unions was reserved for the marriage of a male and a female with the aim to reproduce.

Over the last decade, the Vatican officially became more accepting of LGBTQ people, with their official stance to treat those in the community with dignity and respect. However, the institution’s roots are deeply tied to homophobia and intolerance toward LGBTQ individuals. Pope Francis has expressed support for civil unions to be recognized and protected as civil law, but has not said that same-sex marriage would be recognized by the church.

The recent statement affirms that while they don’t officially support discrimination of queer people, the institution is unwilling to update their stances on their belief of gay marriage. The church still views gay relationships and sex as sinful. The statement claimed that not recognizing gay marriage isn’t supposed to be discriminatory, rather “a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite and of the very nature of the sacramentals, as the church understands them.”

The statement calls gay sex “intrinsically disordered” and makes the argument that marriage is about starting a family. Because many queer couples can’t reproduce, the very nature of the union is different and can’t be blessed by God. The church does not address the fact that there are queer couples who can reproduce, but that acknowledgement would still entirely miss the point. For many, marriage isn’t about starting a family and reproducing, it is an act of love.

The response was praised by conservatives while liberals and LGBTQ members of the church were disappointed by the statement. Several conservative, Catholic groups have come out to support the statement the Vatican put out.

“It is one thing to say all persons possess equal dignity in the eyes of God; it is quite another to say that whatever they do is acceptable to God. Human status and human behavior are not identical,” says Bill Donohue, president of the U.S.-based Catholic League.

Since the announcement, there has also been dissent from groups of priests and bishops who plan to continue to bless same sex unions. John Bonny, a Roman Catholic Bishop of Antwerp, Belgium wrote in a local paper that he disagreed with the statement put out by the church.

“I want to apologize to all those for whom this response is painful and incomprehensible … their pain for the Church is mine today … God has never been stingy or pedantic with His blessing on people,” he says.

Over 1,000 individuals in Germany, including most of the priests, signed a statement saying they were committed to continue blessings of same-sex unions.

Franics DeBernardo, executive director of New ways Ministry, a group that advocates for more acceptance of LGBTQ people in the Catholic Church, also expressed disapproval with the statement.

“Catholic people recognize the holiness of the love between committed, same-sex couples and recognize this love as divinely inspired and divinely supported and thus meets the standard to be blessed,” Debernardo says in a statement.

Despite the history of homophobia in the Catholic Church, Pew found that 61 percent of American Catholics support gay marriage, with even broader acceptance in Europe, with 83 percent of Catholics in Belgium and 76 percent of Catholics in Switzerland expressing support for gay marriage.