Pope Francis surprised the cardinals with his words about blessing sexual minorities

Pope Francis suggests same-sex couples could receive a blessing at the Vatican. Conservative cardinals have called on the head of the Roman Catholic Church to reaffirm teachings on issues related to sexual minorities.

Pope Francis suggested there may be ways to bless same-sex unions, responding to five Conservative cardinals who called on him to reaffirm the church’s teaching on homosexuality ahead of a major meeting on the agenda of sexual minorities among Catholics.

The Vatican on Monday released a letter that Francis wrote to the cardinals on July 11 after receiving a list of five questions from them a day earlier, the Associated Press reported. In it, the pontiff suggests that such blessings could be explored if they did not confuse blessing with holy matrimony.

New Ways Ministries, which advocates for sexual minorities among Catholics, said the letter “significantly advances” efforts to accept sexual minorities in the Catholic Church and represents “one big straw that breaks the camel’s back” in their marginalization.

The Vatican believes that marriage is an indissoluble union between a man and a woman. As a result, the Holy See has long opposed same-sex marriage. But Francis has expressed support for civil laws extending legal benefits to same-sex spouses, and Catholic priests in parts of Europe are blessing same-sex unions without Vatican censure.

However, Francis’ response to the cardinals marks a departure from the Vatican’s current official position. In an explanatory note in 2021, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said the church cannot bless same-sex unions because “God cannot bless sin.”

In his new letter, Francis reiterated that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. But in response to a question from the cardinals about homosexual unions and blessings, he said that “pastoral charity” requires patience and understanding, and priests cannot become judges “who only deny, reject and exclude.”

“For this reason, pastoral prudence must adequately determine whether there are forms of blessing sought by one or more persons that do not convey an erroneous view of marriage,” he wrote. “Because when one asks for a blessing, it expresses a request for help from God, a plea to be able to live better, a trust in the father who can help us live better.”

The Pope said there are situations that are objectively “unacceptable from a moral point of view,” but that same “pastoral charity” requires that people be treated as sinners who may not be entirely to blame for their situations.

Francis added that there is no need for dioceses or episcopal conferences to turn such pastoral charity into fixed norms or protocols, saying the issue can be decided on a case-by-case basis “because the life of the church flows through channels that go beyond norms.”

The five cardinals, all conservative prelates from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, called on Francis in their letter to reaffirm church teaching on homosexuals, the ordination of women, the authority of the pope and other issues.

They published the material two days before the start of a major three-week synod in the Vatican, the agenda of which is sexual minorities and their place in the Catholic Church.

The signatories, the Associated Press notes, are known as some of Francis’ most outspoken critics and are all retired and part of the more doctrinaire generation of cardinals appointed by Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI.

Among them are Walter Brandmüller from Germany, a former Vatican historian; Raymond Burke of the United States, whom Francis fired as head of the Vatican Supreme Court; Juan Sandoval of Mexico, retired Archbishop of Guadalajara; Robert Sarah of Guinea, retired head of the Vatican’s liturgical department; and Joseph Zen, retired Archbishop of Hong Kong.

Brandmueller and Burke were among four signatories to a previous round of no confidence in Francis in 2016 following his controversial announcement to allow divorced and remarried couples to receive communion. At the time, the cardinals were concerned that Francis’ position violated Church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. The pontiff never answered their questions, and two of those who signed them subsequently died.

This time Francis actually responded. The Cardinals did not publish his answer, but apparently found it so unsatisfactory that they reformulated their five questions, sent them back to him and asked him to simply answer “yes” or “no.” When he did not, the cardinals decided to make the texts public and issue a “notice” warning to the faithful.

The Vatican’s Doctrine Office published his response to them hours later, although without his introduction, in which he urged the cardinals not to fear the synod.