The Pope permits blessings for same-sex couples. Does that mean he approves gay marriage?

Pope Francis permitted priests to bless same-sex couples, signifying a shift in the Catholic Church’s approach toward LGBTQ parishioners, while also reinforcing the teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Blessings can now be given to same-sex couples in accordance with strict guidelines, the Vatican said in a declaration published on Dec. 18.

The declaration comes two years after the Vatican announced the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex marriages.

“Francis’ goal here is to get the Church out of the corner it painted itself into regarding same-sex couples in 2021, when it said God ‘does not and cannot bless sin,’” Vincent Miller, a theology professor at University of Dayton, told McClatchy News.

What does the declaration do?

The declaration officially allows Catholic priests to provide blessings to “couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex.”

People in “irregular situations” include those only in civil marriages or couples where at least one individual has been divorced, Bruce Morrill, a professor of theology at Vanderbilt University, told McClatchy News.

The declaration only allows priests to grant a certain type of blessing — a form of prayer — to these couples, Morill said.

It means that, rather than a “ritual and liturgical” blessing, priests can now confer a more informal and spontaneous type of blessing, Morill said.

“This isn’t a formal blessing or recognition of their union, but blessing their desire that ‘all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit,’” Miller said.

Such blessings can only be given in certain circumstances, specifically at events that could not be conflated with marriage ceremonies or celebrations.

“This blessing should never be imparted in concurrence with the ceremonies of a civil union, and not even in connection with them,” the declaration states. “Nor can it be performed with any clothing, gestures, or words that are proper to a wedding.”

The proper settings for such a blessing might include a meeting with a priest, pilgrimage or “visit to a shrine.”

“It is precisely in this context that one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage,” which is the “indissoluble union between a man and a woman,” the declaration states.

In stating that, the declaration “goes out of its way to make very explicit that it is protecting what the church considers a sacred institution,” Morill said.

The Vatican’s declaration comes as the Catholic Church is attempting to carefully navigate the issue of same-sex marriage, which became legalized nationwide after a 2015 Supreme Court decision, Morrill said.

The church has to “walk a fine line between what a lot of main-line protestant churches have done — and that is to consecrate same-sex marriages — and on the other hand, very strictly defending the Roman Catholic limit of marriage to heterosexual couples,” Morill said.

The majority of American Catholics, 61%, favor legalized same-sex marriage, while 31% are opposed, according to a 2019 poll from the Pew Research Center. However, the poll did not survey respondents’ views on the church’s acceptance of same-sex marriage.

“It will be interesting to see how critics respond, how people pleased with this development respond, and how people who want the church to move toward actually allowing same-sex marriage respond,” Catherine O’Donnell, a historian of Catholicism at the Arizona State University, told McClatchy News.

“The subtlety of this declaration could offer a temporary or even long-term compromise,” O’Donnell said, “or it could provoke more discontent.”

Multiple Catholic leaders across the U.S. have issued responses to Francis’ declaration, including Bishop Robert McManus of the Diocese of Worcester, who emphasized the limits of the new guidelines.

“These blessings are offered for the people themselves, not their union,” McManus said in a statement.

Bishop Oscar Cantú of the Diocese of San Jose also released a statement, saying, “this declaration represents an important clarification that acknowledges and responds to the diverse realities of people’s lives while upholding the Church’s teachings on sacramental marriage.”

The Vatican’s declaration also comes as Catholic Church membership has fallen precipitously in the United States in recent decades, according to a 2021 Gallup survey.

”The church needs Catholics as much as Catholics need the church,” O’Donnell said. “The risk is that the former is more true than the latter.”

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