2023-12-19 20:53:29
Text: Editorial Cuba Noticias 360
Foto: Alessia Pierdomenico | Shutterstock
With a document that represents a radical change in Vatican policy, proclaiming that people who seek the love and mercy of God should not be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” to receive it, Pope Francis authorized the priests bless same-sex couples.
Recall that, in October, Francis sent a letter to two conservative cardinals and suggested that such blessings could be offered in some circumstances if they are not confused with the ritual of the sacrament of marriage.
The new document repeats that reasoning, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman. Blessings, in fact, should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union or even with the clothing and gestures typical of a wedding.
Still, such blessings are not to be denied entirely, which is why he stops exhaustively to define the term “blessing” in Scripture.
Although the statement of this December 18 makes clear the blessing of same-sex couples “in irregular situations” for the Catholic Church, it maintains its firm opposition to homosexual marriage.
In this sense, he states: «This blessing will never be carried out at the same time as the civil union rites, nor in connection with them. Not even with the clothes, gestures or words typical of a marriage.
He then adds: “The possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples, the form of which must not find any ritual fixation by the ecclesiastical authorities, so as not to produce confusion with the blessing proper to the sacrament of marriage.”
Likewise, he declares: “The request for a blessing expresses and nourishes, thus, the openness to 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. ”.
Despite not being recognized by the Holy See, some priests already blessed same-sex couples, especially countries like Belgium and Germany.
Six weeks after the conclusion of the Synod for the future of the Catholic Church, a global consultative meeting between bishops, women and lay people where, among other topics, social issues such as the acceptance of LGBT people and divorced and remarried people were debated, publish this document.
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