Catholic Church To Continue Same-Sex Blessings Under Pope Leo
Vatican official states Pope Leo will continue a same-sex blessing doctrine set in place by Pope Francis.
The Catholic Church will continue to bless same-sex couples under Pope Leo XIV, according to a Vatican official. The official told reporters that the precedent set by Pope Francis, which allows for blessings but not official recognition of “marriages” of same-sex couples, will continue under the new pope.
In 2023, Francis declared that Catholic priests may offer blessings to same-sex couples on a “case-by-case” basis, though the blessings would not constitute marriage rites. When asked if Leo would repeal the doctrine, the Vatican’s Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith, Victor Manuel Fernández, said, “I really don’t think so, the declaration will remain.”
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The announcement comes despite the fact that Leo has affirmed his views on gay marriage at the beginning of his papacy, saying that family is “founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman.” Also adding, “No one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.”
The 2023 doctrine approved by Pope Francis made a distinction between formal liturgical blessings and the pastoral ones that could be offered to those in same-sex unions, stressing that such blessings are not at all comparable to marriage. “Rites and prayers that could create confusion between what constitutes marriage — which is the ‘exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children’ — and what contradicts it are inadmissible.”
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While the doctrine faced a large amount of conservative backlash, undoing it would be difficult, according to leading Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg. Hollerich gave an interview to La Stampa in the early days of Leo’s papacy and hinted at his continuation of the doctrine. “I can say with certainty: God loves everyone. God blesses everyone. This does not mean approving homosexuality, but affirming that every human being is loved by God. And I believe that the Pope will continue on this path,” Hollerich said.
While the Vatican has yet to put out an official statement confirming that the doctrine will remain, the news comes as a relief to LGBTQ+ catholics wary of the new pope’s previous statements on queer unions.
