Conservative Bishops Push Back Against Pope Francis on Same-Sex Blessings

ROME—Conservative Catholic bishops in various countries have objected to Pope Francis’ recent permission on blessings for gay couples, underscoring the divisiveness of the issue in the global church.The bishops of Zambia, Malawi and the principal archdiocese of Kazakhstan prohibited their priests from offering such blessings. The bishops of Ukraine lamented what they called a recent Vatican declaration’s wording, which they warned could suggest approval of gay behavior.

Meanwhile, bishops in some European countries including Germany, Austria and Switzerland welcomed the new policy.

On Monday, the Vatican issued guidelines for the blessing of gay couples, saying that such ceremonies are permitted as long as they don’t imply that same-sex relationships are the equivalent of heterosexual marriage. Monday’s declaration confirmed and elaborated on a letter by the pope released in October.

The Zambian bishops declared in response that they would not implement the new Vatican guidelines, “in order to avoid any pastoral confusion and ambiguity as well as not to break the law of our country which forbids same sex unions and activities, and while listening to our cultural heritage which does not accept same sex relationships.”

In his Christmas speech to Vatican officials on Thursday morning, Francis didn’t mention the policy on blessings, but called for vigilance “against rigid ideological positions that often, under the guise of good intentions, separate us from reality and prevent us from moving forward.”

Francis has taken a conciliatory approach to LGBTQ people, without formally changing church teaching, which holds that gay acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “under no circumstances can they be approved.” In 2021, he approved a Vatican statement prohibiting blessings on the grounds that God “cannot bless sin,” but he reversed the ban this year.

Catholic priests in Germany and some other northern European countries have for years held ceremonies to bless same-sex couples, in defiance of the Vatican’s earlier ban.

In March, Germany’s Catholic bishops voted in favor of adopting formal ceremonies to bless same-sex relationships. Bishop Georg Bätzing, head of the German bishops’ conference, expressed gratitude for the new Vatican guidelines this week, even though they specify that blessings of gay couples must be spontaneous and not part of the official liturgy.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which largely opposes Francis’ liberalizing agenda, issued a terse response to Monday’s guidelines from the Vatican, stressing that the document didn’t change the church’s teaching on marriage.

Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minn., described the declaration as speaking “about offering blessings to people who currently live outside of the way of life commanded by Jesus.”

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, one of the progressive minority in the U.S. episcopate, said: “Here in the Archdiocese of Chicago, we welcome this declaration, which will help many more in our community feel the closeness and compassion of God.”

Some Catholic prelates have warned that the issue could provoke a schism, or permanent split in the church, pointing to the more stark divergences over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion.

Conservative Anglican churches, including some in Africa that include nearly half of the world’s estimated 100 million Anglicans, have broken off relations with sister churches that espouse liberal teaching and practice on homosexuality, including the Episcopal Church in the U.S.

In February, a dozen leading Anglican archbishops, mostly from the global South, called for a break with the Church of England, the historical progenitor of the denomination, after it decided to allow the blessing of same-sex relationships.

Write to Francis X. Rocca at [email protected]