The Vatican's doctrinal office on Thursday tried to calm criticism from  Catholic bishops in some countries who reacted negatively to last month's limited approval of blessings for same-sex couples. The Vatican said the measure could not be seen — as some had said — as "heretical" or "blasphemous." 

The five-page statement essentially sought to stress two core points.

Firstly, allowing the blessings has no impact on the Catholic Church's definition of marriage as the "exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children."

Secondly, the blessings in question should have no liturgical format and should be impossible to confuse with a religious rite or the blessing of a marriage.

Same-sex couples in 'irregular situations' do not change Church's 'perennial' marriage views

The paper noted the criticism since the December 18 announcement, saying it hoped to "clarify its reception" and explicitly "recommending at the same time a full and calm reading of the Declaration so as to better understand its meaning and purpose." 

It used a series of quotes from the original statement from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to demonstrate how it believed the change had no impact on the Catholic Church's teachings on marriage, saying same-sex couples were in "irregular situations."

"The Declaration contains a proposal for short and simple pastoral blessings (neither liturgical nor ritualized) of couples in irregular situations (but not of their unions), underlining that these are blessings without a liturgical format which neither approve nor justify the situation in which these people find themselves," Thursday's statement said.

"This Declaration remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage, not allowing any type of liturgical rite or blessing similar to a liturgical rite that can create confusion," the Dicastery wrote, quoting its own earlier statement.

It went on to say that clergy members issuing such a blessing were not "validating" same-sex couples or "changing in any way the Church's perennial teaching on marriage.'" 

Given the stipulations, the document said, it was not possible to deem the suggestions heretical or blasphemous or contrary to the tradition of the Church, as it argued it did not change these traditions.

German cardinal among those claiming 'blasphemy'

Among the most notable critics of the blessings was German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller. He was the former head of the Dicastery under former Pope Benedict XVI — who, when he was known as Joseph Ratzinger, was an archbishop in Germany — with the German pontiff deemed much more conservative than the current head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis.

Müller had alleged that allowing such blessings amounted to "blasphemy," as well as being fundamentally impossible to issue in his interpretation of the Bible. 

"The blessing of a reality that goes against Creation itself is not only impossible but constitutes blasphemy," Müller had argued. He noted how the same church organization had said in 2021 that full religious or liturgical blessings for same-sex couples were not possible. 

Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu had asked all African bishops' groups to formulate their thoughts on the text and send it to him by the middle of January. Besungu, the head of the African Council of Bishops, planned to then communicate concerns to the Vatican and to seek clarifications for use in Africa.

He said the "ambiguity" of the December 18 statement on several issues had raised concerns among his peers. 

The proposal had also faced rebukes from bishops in Latin America, eastern Europe and Asia, including from Hungary, Uruguay and from Kazakhstan, with Archbishop of Astana Tomasz Peta and his bishop writing a circular for their priests expressly forbidding them from conducting any such blessing.

Blessing couples in countries with laws against same-sex relations would be 'imprudent'

With homosexuality still outlawed in the majority of Africa, much of Asia and some of the Americas, the Vatican on Thursday also clarified that it was not endorsing any acts that could put people at risk.

"If there are laws that condemn the mere act of declaring oneself as a homosexual with prison and in some cases with torture and even death, it goes without saying that a blessing would be imprudent. It is clear that the Bishops do not wish to expose homosexual persons to violence," it said.

The 'real novelty' lies in 'pastoral' blessing idea, Vatican argues

The paper concluded by describing how it sees these informal, non-religious "pastoral" blessings as fundamentally different from "liturgical" ones as part of religious ceremonies. 

"Some catechesis will be necessary that can help everyone to understand that these types of blessings are not an endorsement of the life led by those who request them," it said. "Even less are they an absolution, as these gestures are far from being a sacrament or a rite."

The Vatican paper described them instead as "simple expressions of pastoral closeness that do not impose the same requirements as a sacrament or a formal rite."

msh/sms (dpa, Reuters, KNA)