These blessings cannot be done in “a form (…) ritually fixed” by the authorities of the Catholic Church, to avoid any confusion with marriage, specifies the Vatican text.
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A document published by the Vatican on Monday, December 18, authorizes the blessing of homosexual couples and couples “in an irregular situation”, a first in the history of the Catholic Church. An unprecedented form of recognition, which does not however open the door to religious marriage of same-sex couples, to which the Holy See remains opposed.
“It is possible to bless couples in an irregular situation and couples of the same sex, in a form which must not be fixed ritually by the ecclesial authorities, so as not to create confusion with the blessing specific to the sacrament of marriage”explains the document published in several languages by the Vatican.
This blessing “will never be performed at the same time as the civil rites of union, nor even in connection with them”specifies the text, approved by Pope Francis.
In July, the sovereign pontiff opened the door, in a letter addressed to conservative cardinals, to the authorization of blessings of same-sex couples, as well as divorced people. This was already practiced by certain priests, notably in Belgium and Germany.
