Catholic Parishes Are Already Supporting and Celebrating Same-Gender Couples

For many years, Catholic parishes have already been supporting and celebrating same-sex couples.

New Ways Ministry has been promoting the many creative ways that Catholic parishes are welcoming and affirming people in same-gender committed relationships and legal marriages.

The organization’s website includes a list of the many creative ways that Catholics can support same-gender unions. Some suggestions are:

Invite gay and lesbian couples to participate in marriage preparation and enhancement programs.
Open bereavement support groups to lesbian and gay people whose spouses have died.
Acknowledge and celebrate the love and commitment of lesbian and gay couples in the same ways that heterosexual couples are affirmed.

For the full list, click here.

Moreover, New Ways Ministry has archived all of the positive statements that church leaders have been making about same-gender couples. Many bishops, including Vatican officials, have made such statements and are referenced in this archive. You can find the archive by clicking here.

Also included on the website is a PDF of a booklet entitled Marriage Equality: A Positive Catholic Approach, which details how and why Catholics support marriage equality from an authentically Catholic position. You can find the PDF by clicking here.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, March 15, 2021

Paul Morrissey says:

March 15, 2021 at 11:52 am

Thank you, Frank and NWM for your insightful response to today’s announcement from the Vatican on the blessing of same-sex unions by the Church.
Most of us know–though it is often not preached about–that we (the Church) are blessed by the love of the people who come to celebrate their weddings in our churches, not the other way around. If we understood this, then we could see that this blessing by gay unions is already happening for many people in the Church.