‘Pastoral confusion’: Conservative church leaders reject Vatican’s blessing for same-sex couples

Conservative bishops around the world are pushing back against the Vatican’s recent comments on blessing same-sex couples, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Vatican announced Monday that same-sex couples can receive a blessing from the Church so long as it doesn’t confuse with the Sacrament of Marriage, which the Vatican said is still only for between a man and a woman. Many international church leaders, however, have expressed concern and even outright dismissal of the decision, arguing that it creates “pastoral confusion” and could lead to blessing same-sex relationships, according to WSJ.

Church bishops in Zambia, Malawi, and the principal archdiocese of Kazakhstan have opted to ban their priests from giving these kinds of blessings, according to WSJ.

The Zambia bishops said they would not comply with the Vatican’s directive “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,” according to a statement released on Facebook.

Ukrainian bishops warned that the Vatican’s directive was too ambiguous and could lead to an endorsement of same-sex relationships, according to the WSJ. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said Monday that the Vatican’s decision was nothing new and that it did not alter the church’s teaching on the subject of marriage, according to a press release.

In Pope Francis’ message Thursday, he warned against “rigid ideological positions that often, under the guise of good intentions, separate us from reality and prevent us from moving forward,” according to the Vatican. Francis has been criticized for his comments on this issue in the past, even appearing to call for civil union law for same-sex couples in a 2020 documentary.

The Vatican did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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