Pope Francis lifts the ban on Catholic priests offering blessings to same-sex couples

POPE Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples in a fundamental shift in the policy of the Catholic Church towards homosexuality and the vexed issue of  lesbian and gay rights.

In a new document explaining a radical change in Vatican policy, the pope endorsed same sex marriages by insisting that people seeking God’s love and mercy should not be subject to an exhaustive moral analysis to receive it. This document, published by the Vatican’s doctrine office yesterday, elaborates on a letter Pope Francis sent to two conservative cardinals that was published in October.

In that preliminary response, Pope Francis suggested such blessings could be offered under some circumstances if they did not confuse the ritual with the sacrament of marriage. This new document repeats that rationale and elaborates on it, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman.

Then, the popes document stresses that blessings should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding. However, it says requests for such blessings should not be denied full stop.

It offers an extensive definition of the term blessing in scripture to insist that people seeking a transcendent relationship with God and looking for his love and mercy should not be subject to an exhaustive moral analysis as a precondition for receiving it. Acco9rding to the document, ultimately, a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God.

Pope Francis wrote:  “The 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. It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered.”