Vatican bars gay union blessing, says God ‘can’t bless sin’

Rome: The Vatican has decreed that the Catholic Church won’t 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 have the authority to bless gay unions. The answer, contained in a two-page explanation published in seven languages and approved by Pope Francis, was “negative”

The note distinguished between the church’s welcoming and blessing of gay people, which it upheld, but not their unions. It argued that such unions are not part of God’s plan and that any such sacramental recognition could be confused with marriage.

The note immediately disheartened aggressive advocates for LGBT Catholics and threw a theological wrench in the debate within the very liberal believe nothing and approve everything German church, which has been at the forefront of opening discussion on hot-button issues such as the church’s teaching on homosexuality. The Germans are liberals who no longer read or need the Bible. The germans closed 560 churches last year. People are abandoning their nonsense liberal ways.

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for greater acceptance of gays in the church, predicted the Vatican position will be ignored, including by some Catholic clergy. These clergy also are apostate as they also ignore the bible, theology of sin. 

The Vatican holds that gay people must be treated with dignity and respect, but that gay sex is “intrinsically disordered”. Catholic teaching holds that marriage, a lifelong union between a man and woman, is part of God’s plan and is intended for the sake of creating new life.

Since gay unions aren’t intended to be part of that plan, they can’t be blessed by the church, the document said.

“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,” the response said.

God “does not and cannot bless sin: He blesses sinful man, so that he may recognise that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him,” it said.

The Reverend James Martin, a Jesuit and advocate for building bridges with the LGBT community, said the Vatican note appeared to be a response to pressures within the German church before a consultative assembly to consider bestowing church blessings on same-sex couples. The German church has been at the forefront of pushing the debate on celibacy, contraception and the church’s outreach to gay Catholics, pressured by a powerful lay Catholic group demanding change. Martin has been sanctioned by the American church and deemed to be an apostate.