In a new document released explaining a radical change in the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples. Although the Church’s continued position on marriage remains between a man and a woman, priests can now bless the union but the “blessings should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union, using set rituals or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding;” “requests for such blessings should not be denied full stop.”
“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.”
In Other Areas the Pope Continues to Piss Off MAGAt Leaning Members:
Efforts by Pope Francis to make the Catholic Church more inclusive for LGBTQ+ people and women, alongside urging vaccination against COVID, have been creating a growing chasm between the Vatican and traditionalist American Catholics. David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, joins Ali Rogin to discuss.
