Green light from Pope Francis to blessings for "irregular" and same-sex couples. With the statement "Fiducia supplicans" from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith, Bergoglio returns to the issue of blessings and their "pastoral sense": a document that overcomes the "responsum" of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith of 2021 that had denied precisely the possibility of these blessings. It will be possible to bless "irregular and same-sex" couples but "without officially validating their status or modifying in any way the Church's perennial teaching on marriage”. As a result, blessing can never be considered in the same way as a sacramental rite. Indeed, the statement approved by the Pontiff points out that “precisely in the case of the rite of the sacrament of marriage, it is not just any blessing, but the gesture reserved for the ordained minister. In this case, the blessing of the ordained minister is directly connected to the specific union of a man and a woman who by their consent establish an exclusive and indissoluble covenant. This allows us to better highlight the risk of confusing a blessing, given to any other union, with the rite proper to the sacrament of marriage”. After an extensive reflection on the liturgical meaning of blessings, the statement opens up the possibility for couples in "irregular and same-sex situations, the form of which should not find any ritual fixation by ecclesial authorities, in order not to produce confusion with the blessing proper to the sacrament of marriage. In these cases, a blessing is imparted that not only has ascending value but is also the invocation of a descending blessing from God Himself on those who, by recognizing themselves as destitute and in need of His help, do not claim legitimacy of their own status, but beg that all that is true of good and humanly valid in their lives and relationships be invested, healed and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit”.
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