Pope Says Church Cannot Bless Same-Sex Marriages Because God ‘Doesn’t Bless Sin’

Although Pope Francis has made “welcoming” comments regarding LGBTQ people and the Catholic Church in the past, a new statement from the Vatican makes clear the Church will not bless same-sex unions because God “cannot bless sin.” From AP News:

The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response to a question about whether Catholic clergy have the authority to bless gay unions. The answer, contained in a two-page explanation published in seven languages and approved by Pope Francis, was “negative.”

The note distinguished between the church’s welcoming and blessing of gay people, which it upheld, but not their unions.

It argued that such unions are not part of God’s plan and that any sacramental recognition of them could be confused with marriage.

The Catholic Church maintains that “marriage is a lifelong union between a man and woman, is part of God’s plan and is intended for the sake of creating new life.” In a documentary released last October,  the Pope said in an interview that he endorses the idea of same-sex unions in the form of civil unions but not “marriage.” “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family,” Pope Francis said at the time. “They are children of God.”