An announcement from Pope Francis on Monday regarding a significant change to Vatican policy that formally allows Roman Catholic priests to bestow blessings on same-sex couples brought praise and gratitude from some, with a cautionary eye toward blowback from others

“It’s time,” said Gayle Rappold, who started a monthly support group in Colorado Springs called Journey, for Catholics who have LGBTQ loved ones. “It’s about time that we are at least as a church putting this forward.”

However, the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage has not changed, said Bishop James Golka, who leads the Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs.

The Vatican declaration “Fiducia Supplicans: On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings,” issued Monday by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, “prohibits any action on the part of pastors that could create confusion about marriage – such as giving a blessing in conjunction with a civil marriage ceremony,” Golka said in a statement.

“Rather, this declaration is simply an effort to accompany people through the imparting of pastoral blessings on those who acknowledge the need for God’s healing love and mercy in their lives,” Golka said.

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Catholic teaching is that marriage is an indissoluble union between a man and a woman, and therefore opposes gay marriage. 

In granting approval that allows priests to bless same-sex couples, Pope Francis said the policy change addresses that in seeking God’s love and mercy, people should not be subjected to “an exhaustive moral analysis” in order to receive such graces.

The document is based on a letter, which the Pope wrote in July and that was made public in October, in response to five conservative cardinals challenging him on church teaching on homosexuality before the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality.

The synod was an initiative of Pope Francis’ to determine how the Holy Spirit is moving through the church and how the church should adapt its mission of evangelization in modern times.

His papacy has been marked by intentional gestures suggesting that LGBTQ people should we welcomed, such as voicing support for allowing legal benefits to same-sex spouses, for example. 

New Ways Ministry, a nationwide Catholic outreach that advocates for LGBTQ equity, inclusion and justice, called the letter as it was released a significant advancement to make LGBTQ+ Catholics feel welcome in the church and “one big straw towards breaking the camel’s back” in their marginalization.” 

In some regions in Europe, Catholic priests have been blessing same-sex unions without rebuke from the Holy See. 

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“It’s wonderful news that he (Pope Francis) has done that,” Rappold said. “I’ve seen it coming out of the Synod and the Pope’s movement toward a more modern and realistic view of sexuality.”

The document states that “a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God.” And that the request for a blessing “is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered.”

The Rev. Dr. Ellen Johnson-Fay, minister emerita of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Colorado Springs, praised Monday’s announcement.

“The Pope’s decision to allow priests to bless same sex couple is an encouraging development for people who believe, as I do, that all people have the right to love whom they love and be blessed when they decide to enter a committed relationship of mutual affection, care and support without ‘an exhaustive moral analysis,’ as he put it,” she said. “In my deeply held belief, same-sex love should never have been condemned by institutional religions.”

Johnson-Fay said she hopes the new directive means that “Christianity as a whole might be influenced to move in a more inclusive and less judgmental and authoritarian direction, and that all people, whatever their faith or religious affiliation or gender identity, will be seen for their full humanity and treated with dignity and respect.

Rappold said she knows pushback will be coming.

“There’s no doubt about that,” she said. “But I think moving forward is inevitable. I’m hoping and praying that’s the case.”

Latin Rite blogger Luigi Casalini of Messa in Latino (Mass in Latin) wrote that the document appeared to be a form of heresy, reported the Associated Press, which contributed to this story.

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