Declaring that the Vatican “cannot bless sin,” the Roman Catholic Church on Monday launched an unprovoked attack on the marriages of same-sex couples and on LGBTQ people in general, issuing a very public response to a question no one except the Vatican’s had been asking. “Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?” the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, asked, as the Catholic News Agency reports. “Negative,” was the answer from the Congregation, also known as the Vatican’s “Holy Office.” What followed was a nearly 1000-word explanation to a question no LGBTQ or other civil rights group had posed.