In a radical move, Pope Francis has said that he was open to alternate blessings for same-sex couples. When other cardinals asked 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, BBC reported.
He however said that the Catholic church would not recognise same-sex marriages and consider the union as a sin, but, a request for a blessing would be granted. A blessing in a Catholic church, a prayer or a plea delivered by a minister, requesting God to look favourably on the person or people being blessed.
Bishops in several countries, including Belgium and Germany, have begun to allow priests to bless same-sex couples, BBC reported.
The Pope was responding to questions presented to him by five conservative cardinals, ahead of a big meeting where LGBTQ+ Catholics are on the agenda. The Vatican views marriage to be an indissoluble union between a man and a woman.
The Pope, in the past, has advocated for civil and legal benefits to be extended to same-sex couples. “Pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of benediction, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage,” Pope Francis wrote in his new letter. “Because when a benediction is requested, it is expressing a request for help from God, a plea to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us to live better,” he added, the Guardian reported. He added that church leaders should not “become judges who only deny, reject, exclude.”