Pope Francis has suggested for the first time that some people in same-sex unions could be blessed by the Catholic Church, although he stopped short of endorsing same-sex marriage itself.
“You can’t just say all [same-sex unions] are equal,” Francis said in a documentary released on Wednesday night. “But it’s necessary to look at them on a case-by-case basis, and to think, ‘At what point is it possible to propose an accompaniment or a blessing?’”
Though the pope’s comments stop short of fully endorsing same-sex marriage, they represent a significant shift in language from the Vatican, which has traditionally been opposed.
In the documentary, Francis notes, “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God and have a right to a family”, before adding that it was necessary to look at “each case”.
His comments signal a major departure from previous Vatican statements which have opposed same-sex marriage. For example, in 2003, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that “respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviours or legal recognition of homosexual unions.”
It is likely to be greeted positively by liberal Catholics, who have been pushing for greater acceptance of same-sex relationships in the Church, including the blessing of unions under certain circumstances, while conservative Catholics may be alarmed by what they see as a capitulation to the secular world.
