Just this Monday, the Vatican stated that the Catholic Church would not bless same-sex unions, crushing the hopes of gay Catholics who wish to close the chasm that stands between them and the Catholic Church. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published a decree saying that “such blessings cannot be considered licit,” according to an article in The Guardian. 

The decree that the CDF put out had also stated “the Christian community and its pastors must welcome with respect and sensitivity persons with homosexual inclinations.” Their unions, however, will not be blessed. 

The message was approved by Pope Francis, who was praised in the past for his warm and welcoming tone for LGBTQIA+ people who were either within or not part of the church. Pope Francis had endorsed same-sex civil unions in a past interview for a documentary. 

“Homosexual people have a right to be in a family,” Pope Francis said, “they’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable over it. What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered.”

The document goes on to say “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 him to be changed by him.”

The Holy See referred to same-sex unions as a “choice” and described them as sinful, saying that the unions cannot “be recognized as objectively ordered to God’s plans.” The Vatican insists that the “negative judgement on the blessing of the unions of persons of the same sex does not imply on a judgement of persons.” It added on later that the Church “does not, and cannot have” the power to bless same-sex marriages.