Pope Francis has suggested for the first time that people in same-sex unions could be blessed by Catholic priests different from his statement in March, when he said the Church could not bless same-sex unions, because they could “not bless sin.”
The Pope made the suggestion in a letter to his harshest critics within the Catholic ranks, written in response to a letter from five conservative cardinals with formal questions – called a “dubia” (Latin for “doubt”) – which is an official request for a yes or no answer from a sitting pontiff regarding his running of the Church.
The cardinals, Walter Brandmuller, Raymond Leo Burke, Juan Sandoval Iniguez, Robert Sarah and Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, first sent the letter to Pope Francis on July 10. It focused on an upcoming October meeting of bishops, asking what impact it could have on Church’s teaching. It included questions about the Pope’s intention to bless same-sex unions, and whether he intends to open the door to women priests through ordination.
Since Pope Francis was chosen to lead the Catholic Church in 2013, he has talked about and modeled more openness to LGBTQ people than his predecessors.
That same year, when asked about gay members of the clergy, he famously responded, “Who am I to judge?”
When asked about how he would treat a homosexual person in confession? He responded Juan Carlos Cruz that “it doesn’t matter that you are gay. God made you that way and he loves you the way you are, and it doesn’t matter to me”?
In 2016 he said that Christians owed LGBTQ people an apology for their historical mistreatment. But he’s also previously claimed “the family is threatened” by the movement for same-sex marriage and once compared gender theory to “nuclear arms.”
In an appearance in a documentary released in October 2020, Francis indicated support for same-sex civil unions, calling gay Catholics “children of God” who “have a right to a family.”