The Vatican’s statement that same-sex unions are a sin that the Roman Catholic Church cannot bless was not a surprise to LGBTQ Catholics in the United States, although it stung deeply.
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, said members of her organization include same-sex couples who have been together for decades, persevering in their love for each other in the face of family bias and rejection. .
“The fact that our church at its highest levels cannot recognize grace in this and cannot extend any kind of blessing to these couples is simply tragic,” he said.
She responded Monday to a formal statement from the Vatican’s Orthodox office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying the Roman Catholic clergy may not bless such unions, as God “cannot bless sin.” It was approved by Pope Francis.
“That sin is explicitly included in this statement brings us back to zero,” said Ross Murray, who oversees the religious issues of the LGBTQ rights group GLAAD.
He expressed dismay that “the ability to live our lives fully and freely is still seen as an affront to the church or, worse, as an affront to God, who created us, knows us, and loves us.”
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the New Ways Ministry, which advocates for greater LGBTQ acceptance in the church, said that if those priests who have already blessed homosexual unions stop doing so, lay Catholics could move.
“If priests and pastoral ministers no longer feel they can do this blessing, Catholic lay people will step in and perform their own rituals,” DeBernardo said. “The toothpaste is out of the tube and can’t be put back in.”
The Rev. Bryan Massingale, an openly gay Catholic priest and professor of theology and social ethics at Fordham University, said priests who want to engage in the pastoral outreach of the gay and lesbian community “will continue to do so, except that it will be more uniform under the table … than before ”.
He said that for Catholics in homosexual relations, the new Vatican message will hurt.
“Every human being is born with this innate desire to love,” he said. “For those who are oriented to members of the same sex … to be described as an inherent or innate sinner without any qualifications, this is crushing.”
Vatican doctrine holds that gays and lesbians should be treated with dignity and respect, but that gay sex is “intrinsically disordered” and that same-sex unions are sinful.
Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, said these teachings, put together, are problematic.
“He was surprised that the hierarchy can claim that LGBTQ + people are made in the image of God, but that their unions are a sin,” he said in an email. “Are they made in the image of God except in his heart? Except for your skills and inclinations to love? “
Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the U.S.-based Catholic social justice lobby NETWORK and advocate for greater LGBTQ inclusion in the church, said she was relieved that the Vatican’s statement was not harsh.
She interpreted it by saying, “You can bless people (in a same-sex union), you just can’t bless the contract.”
“So you may have a ritual where people are blessed to be their commitment.”
However, some church conservatives welcomed the Vatican’s statement, such as Bill Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League.
“There will be no recognition of same-sex unions or marriage by the Catholic Church. It is non-negotiable. End of story,” he said.
“Pope Francis has been under considerable pressure from gay activists, inside and outside the church, to give the green light to gay marriage,” added Donohue, who described Monday’s statement as “rejection.” most decisive of these efforts ever written. “
Francis has agreed to provide legal protections to same-sex couples, but this is in the civil sphere and not in the church.
Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean advocate for victims of sexual abuse who is gay, reported in 2018 that when he met with Francis, the pope told him, “God has made you like this and loves you.”
On Monday, Cruz said Vatican officials who issued the new statement “are completely in a world of their own, away from the people and trying to defend the indefensible.”
He called for a change in the leadership of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying it was undermining Francis’ efforts to create a more inclusive church.
“If the church and the CDF do not move forward with the world … Catholics will continue to flee.” He said.
In Francis ’homeland in Argentina, LGBTQ activist Esteban Paulon said the pontiff’s previous statements conveying empathy and understanding for gays and lesbians were simple gestures, with no official weight.
“They were not institutional statements,” said Paulon, executive director of the LGBT + Institute for Public Policy. “To say that homosexual practice is a sin takes us back 200 years and promotes the hate speech that is unfortunately on the rise in Latin America and Europe.”
Chile’s largest LGBTQ rights group, the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, condemned the decree as a “homophobic and anti-Christian action” by the Catholic hierarchy.
The spokesman, Oscar Rementería, contrasted the Vatican’s severe rhetoric against gay marriage with the numerous documented cases of Catholic leaders concealing minor sexual abuse committed by the clergy.
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Associated Press writers Eva Vergara in Santiago, Chile; Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Nicole Winfield in Rome and Mariam Fam in Cairo contributed to this report.
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