{"id":299560,"date":"2023-10-03T14:05:23","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T14:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/?p=299560"},"modified":"2023-10-03T15:27:29","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T15:27:29","slug":"pope-same-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/world\/pope-same-sex\/2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope skeptical about Catholic Church blessing same-sex couples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pope Francis has suggested he would be open to having the Catholic Church bless same-sex couples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to a group of cardinals who asked him for clarity on the issue, he said any request for a blessing should be treated with “pastoral charity”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We cannot be judges who only deny, reject and exclude,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added, however, that the Church still considered same-sex relationships “objectively sinful” and would not recognise same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The request was one of a number sent to the Pope ahead of a weeks-long global gathering to discuss the future of the Church, set to get underway at the Vatican on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Catholic Church, a blessing is a prayer or plea, usually delivered by a minister, asking for God to look favourably on the person or people being blessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bishops in a number of countries, including Belgium and Germany, have begun to allow priests to bless same-sex couples, but the position of Church authorities remained unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though this seems a significant change in tone, it has to be remembered that as recently the spring of 2021, the same pope approved a decree from the Vatican’s doctrinal office forbidding priests from blessing same-sex unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, it was stressed that such partnerships are sinful and as such could not be blessed. Earlier this year, when Pope Francis talked of homosexuality not being a crime, he still talked of it as being a sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In referring to blessings now, Pope Francis has not expressly talked of what would be blessed: the unions or the individual or group wanting to be blessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He talked more generally of those asking for blessing as expressing a request for help from God to be able to live better, something he said should not be denied them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pope said the Church understood marriage to be an “exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman” and should avoid “any type of rite or sacramental that might contradict this conviction”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he added that “when a blessing is requested, it is expressing a plea to God for help, a supplication to live better”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons, that do not convey a mistaken concept of marriage,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appearing to suggest that requests for blessings should be considered on a case-by-case basis, he said that “decisions that may be part of pastoral prudence in certain circumstances should not necessarily become a norm”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Canon law should not and cannot cover everything,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the Church should always approach its relationships with people with “kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness and encouragement”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this does not mark a doctrinal departure, Pope Francis’ papacy has been characterised by moves to soften the Church’s language on sexuality and other key issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is something that, throughout, has angered those conservatives who look to hold more strictly to the historic teachings of the faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, a vote of senior figures in the Church of England backed proposals to allow prayers of blessing for same-sex couples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move would mean a same-sex couple could go to an Anglican church after a legal marriage ceremony for services including prayers of dedication, thanksgiving and God’s blessing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: BBC <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More stories here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Francis has suggested he would be open to having the Catholic Church bless same-sex couples. Responding to a group of cardinals who asked him for clarity on the issue, he said any request for a blessing should be treated with “pastoral charity”. “We cannot be judges who only deny, reject and exclude,” he said. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":213371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,25,2773],"tags":[15560,19455],"class_list":["post-299560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-news","category-trending","tag-pope-francis","tag-same-sex"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/gay-hands2.jpg?fit=600%2C375&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299576,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299560\/revisions\/299576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}