“It Is Impossible For God to Bless Sin”, Vatican Addresses Issue of Same Sex Unions

 

According to reports by Reuters, the Vatican orthodoxy office in a statement approved by Pope Francis has said that the Roman Catholic Church does not have the power to bless same sex unions as it is “impossible” for God to “bless sin”.

The statement came from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in response to a question about the church’s power to bless same-sex unions.

“Negative” was the reply, signed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria, who heads the CDF, which was founded in the Middle Ages — in the year 1542 — to combat heresy.

The CDF warned that such blessings will not be allowed, despite being motivated by sincere desire to help homosexual persons grow in the faith, adding that it was “not intended to be a form of unjust discrimination, but rather a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite as marriage between a man and a woman is sacrament and therefore blessings cannot be extended to same-sex couples.

“For this reason, it is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex,” it said.

“God does not and cannot bless sin: He blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him,” the statement added.

Amidst reactions of this statement by the CDF as approved by the pope and the  pontiff’s statement last year in a documentary by Evgeny Afineevsky that “homosexual people have a right to be in a family… they are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or made miserable over it”,  the Vatican has attempted to clarify the comments saying they were taken out of context and did not indicate support for same-sex marriage.