Pope signals openness to blessings for gay couples, study of women's ordination

Pope Francis delivers his homily during an ecumenical prayer vigil in St. Peter's Square Sept. 30, ahead of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops. (CNS/Lola Gomez)

Pope Francis has expressed openness to Catholic blessings for same-sex couples, under the condition they are not confused with marriage ceremonies for men and women, in what could be a watershed moment for the global Catholic Church. Francis has also suggested the question of women's ordination to the priesthood, controversially prohibited by Pope John Paul II in 1994, could be open to further study. "Pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or several people, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage," Francis wrote in a letter dated Sept. 25 and released by the Vatican on Oct. 2. The pope's words come in response to five retired conservative Catholic cardinals who had written to the pontiff, expressing concerns about a number of hot-button issues that are expected to be discussed at a major Vatican meeting this month, known as the Synod of Bishops. The pope's eight-page reply to some of his most vociferous critics was offered in response to their questions — formally known as dubia — regarding gay blessings, women's ordination to priesthood, synodality, divine revelation and the nature of forgiveness. The cardinals, apparently frustrated by the pope's reply to them, had made public their original questions earlier in the day on Oct. 2.

While Francis offered a strong defense of the church's longstanding teaching that marriage is between one man and one woman, and must be open to children, he also said that it is important for the church not to "lose pastoral charity, which must be part of all our decisions and attitudes." Defending what the church teaches to be objective truth, he continued, does not mean that church leaders "become judges who only deny, reject, exclude." The pope then indicated that discernment is necessary when blessings are requested by same-sex couples, and said any blessings must avoid giving any misunderstanding about what the church teaches about the nature of marriage. "When you ask for a blessing you are expressing a request for help from God, a prayer to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us live better," he wrote. The pope's latest letter seems to be an abrupt and intentional shift from a March 2021 decree issued by the Vatican's doctrinal office — with the pope's approval — explicitly forbidding priests from blessing same-sex unions, with the justification that God "cannot bless sin." At the time, the two-page explanation was published in seven languages declaring that Catholic teaching considers marriage to be between a man and a woman — with an aim toward creating new life — and that since gay unions cannot achieve that goal without medical intervention, it is impossible to offer blessings for same-sex couples. On the question of women's ordination, Francis acknowledged John Paul's 1994 declaration in the apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis that the church had "no authority" to ordain women as priests, and John Paul's statement that the teaching must be "definitively held" by all Catholics. But Francis also said there is not "a clear and authoritative doctrine ... about the exact nature of a 'definitive declaration.' " "It is not a dogmatic definition, and yet it must be accepted by everyone," the pope summarized. "No one can contradict it publicly and yet it can be an object of study, as in the case of the validity of the ordinations in the Anglican communion."