New Ways Ministry: Blessings Guidance ‘Significantly Advances’ Pope’s LGBTQ+ Affirmation

Yesterday, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a responsum ad dubia, or document answering questions, which came directly from Pope Francis. The release came after five conservative cardinals issued an open letter ahead of the Synod assembly beginning this week that sought condemnations from the pope of same-gender church blessings, women’s ordination, and other issues.

Earlier this year, Pope Francis had responded to the cardinals’ questions, who then resubmitted them, unhappy with the pope’s initial reply. The release now of the responsum signals the Vatican’s pushback against the cardinal’s negative appraisal of the Synod on Synodality. A full report on this news is available at the National Catholic Reporter. An English translation of the responsum is available from Vatican News, as well as the original version in Spanish.

The following is a statement from Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry’s Executive Director:

Though the Vatican’s latest statement about same-gender couples does not provide a full-fledged, ringing endorsement of blessing their unions, the document significantly advances Pope Francis’ work to include and affirm LGBTQ+ people.

This new step, outlined in a document released on October 2nd by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, allows for pastoral ministers to administer such blessings on a case-by-case basis, advising that “pastoral prudence” and “pastoral charity” should guide any response to couples who request a blessing. It also indicates that permitting such blessings cannot be institutionalized by diocesan regulations, perhaps a reference to some dioceses in Germany where blessings are already taking place with official and explicit permission. “The life of the church,” the Pope writes, “runs through many channels in addition to the standard ones,” indicating that respecting diverse and particular situations must take precedence over church law.

The allowance for pastoral ministers to bless same-gender couples implies that the church does indeed recognize that holy love can exist between same-gender couples, and the love of these couples mirrors the love of God. Those recognitions, while not completely what LGBTQ+ Catholics would want, are an enormous advance towards fuller and more comprehensive equality.  This statement is one big straw towards breaking the camel’s back of the marginalized treatment LGBTQ+ people experience in the Church.

The document, called a “responsum ad dubia,” was written in July as a response to five conservative cardinals’ questions to the Vatican, including a question about blessing same-gender couples. Unhappy with the response, the cardinals reformulated the questions again, and the pope gave no reply. The Vatican released the pope’s answers now because today the five cardinals made public their reformulated set of questions.

The timing of the document’s release is significant. Though the five cardinals received these answers in July, and resubmitted their questions in August, they have publicized their questions on the eve of the assembly of the Synod on Synodality, a meeting in which greater pastoral care with LGBTQ+ people is on the agenda. In releasing it, they have asked Pope Francis to condemn same-gender relationships. Such timing seems designed to forestall any meaningful discussion in the synod assembly of these matters. Pope Francis would be wise not to respond to their request. In fact, the release of the pope’s response shows more clearly that the pope wants discussion on greater pastoral inclusion of LGBTQ+ people.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, October 3, 2023

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