ROME: The Vatican decreed on Monday (Mar 15) that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin".The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response on Monday to a question about whether Catholic clergy can bless gay unions.The answer, contained in a two-page explanation published in seven languages and approved by Pope Francis, was “negative".The decree distinguished between the church’s welcoming and blessing of gay people, which it upheld, but not their unions.The Vatican holds that gays must be treated with dignity and respect, but that gay sex is “intrinsically disordered”.