Blessing Same-Sex Couples

The Vatican’s 2023 declaration Fiducia Supplicans allowed priests for the first time to offer non-liturgical “spontaneous” blessings for same-sex couples. The Vatican insisted the Church’s teaching remained the same but critics said it marked a major doctrinal shift, not least because the declaration appeared to weaken a 2021 Vatican Responsum which explicitly rejected any kind of formal or liturgical blessing of same-sex unions on the grounds that the Church “cannot bless sin.” Fiducia Supplicans caused widespread controversy with a significant number of bishops, especially in Africa, rejecting it.