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ROME (AP) ā
Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, with a new document explaining a radical change in Vatican policy by insisting that people seeking Godās love and mercy shouldnāt be subject to āan exhaustive moral analysisā to receive it.
The document from the Vaticanās doctrine office, released Monday, elaborates on a letter Francis
sent to two conservative cardinals that was published in October. In that preliminary response, Francis suggested such blessings could be offered under some circumstances if they didnāt confuse the ritual with the sacrament of marriage.
The new document repeats that rationale and elaborates on it, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman. And it stresses that blessings should not be conferred at the same time as
a civil union, using set rituals or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding.
But it says requests for such blessings should not be denied full stop. It offers an extensive definition of the term āblessingā in Scripture to insist that people seeking a transcendent relationship with God and looking for his love and mercy should not be subject to āan exhaustive moral analysisā as a precondition for receiving it.
āUltimately, a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God,ā the document said. āThe request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live.ā
He added: āIt is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered.ā
The Vatican holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman. As a result, it has long opposed same-sex marriage.
And in 2021, the Vaticanās Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said flat-out that the church couldnāt bless the unions of two men or two women because
āGod cannot bless sin.ā
That document created an outcry, one it appeared even Francis was blindsided by even though he had technically approved its publication. Soon after it was published, he removed the official responsible for it and set about laying the groundwork for a reversal.
In the new document, the Vatican said the church must shy away from ādoctrinal or disciplinary schemes, especially when they lead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying.ā
It stressed that people in āirregularā unions ā gay or straight ā are in a state of sin. But it said that shouldnāt deprive them of Godās love or mercy.
āThus, when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it,ā the document said.
AP News