Pope Francis has officially allowed priests in the Catholic church to bless same-sex couples, but in another breadth reaffirmed that marriage is between a man and a woman.
The Vatican in a document released on Monday providing guidance and details about the declaration, states:
“When people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it. For those seeking a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection.”
The Vatican’s doctrine office in the document elaborates on a letter Pope Francis sent to two conservative cardinals published in October
The new document also averred that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman but stressed that blessings should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding.
The document says requests for such blessings should not be denied full stop.
The vatican defined the term ‘blessing’ in Scripture to insist that people seeking a transcendent relationship with God and looking for his love and mercy should not be subject to ‘an exhaustive moral analysis’ as a precondition for receiving it.
‘Ultimately, a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God,’ the document said.
‘The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live.’
He added: ‘It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered.’
The Vatican however argued that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman, and as a result, it has long opposed same-sex marriage.
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