Catholic bishops in Africa oppose blessings of same-sex couples
The Vatican on Thursday moved to quell opposition to Pope Francis’ approval for Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples in response strong resistance from some bishops’ conferences, mostly in Africa.
The Vatican’s statement clarifying the pope’s controversial declaration last month acknowledged the dissenting bishops’ concerns by assuring them that the move was not “heretical” or “blasphemous” to the Catholic Church’s doctrines on marriage and sexuality.
The statement from the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, also holds that the blessings for same-sex couples should not be perceived as “a justification of all their actions and they are not an endorsement of the life that they lead.” The five-page statement that Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, who is an advisor to Francis, signed further notes “if there are laws that condemn the mere act of declaring oneself as homosexual with prison and in some cases with torture and even death, it goes without saying that a blessing would be imprudent.” The Vatican observed that Catholic bishops from such homophobic environments “do not wish to expose homosexual persons to violence” and urged “pastoral prudence” to navigate punitive local laws and situations in administering simple, short blessings to same-sex partners, but not as church rituals or resemble a wedding.
Despite this clarification on Catholic priests blessing people in same-sex relationships, the dissenting African bishops’ conferences have vowed to stick to the church’s old, Biblical order that recognizes marriage between a man and a woman, and homosexuality as a sin.
