Following several speculations on the church’s stand on the gay/LGBTQ community on same-sex marriages channeled to the Vatican, the Vatican’s office for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has now issued a formal response on whether Catholic clergys can bless the union of two same-sex couples.
The statement which was approved by Pope Francis read that while the church will not turn away gay couples, the union of two gay people are not a part of God’s plan and therefore cannot be substituted for marriage.
The Vatican maintains that marriage, a lifelong union between a man and woman is a part of God’s plan for procreating and gay unions are not a part of that plan and that God does not and cannot bless sin, but could bless a sinful person until he is changed by God. Read the statement in part below
“The presence in such relationships of positive elements, which are in themselves to be valued and appreciated, cannot justify these relationships and render them legitimate objects of an ecclesial blessing, since the positive elements exist within the context of a union not ordered to the Creator’s plan,”
God “does not and cannot bless sin: He blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him,”
The Pope who has pushed for the protection of rights of gay people among other rights have somehow led some to confuse human rights promotion with a form of acceptance of changed doctrine which the Vatican has now clarified on. The Pope was quoted as saying the following:
Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God.” Speaking of families with gay children, he said: “You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”
Pope Francis
