Catholic priests pledge to bless same-sex unions after backlash over Vatican comments

An organisation of Catholic priests have said they will bless same-sex marriages, going against guidance from the Vatican.

The Parish Priest Initiative said in a statement about how “deeply appalled” they were by the Vatican’s recent ruling and promised to “not reject any loving couple who ask to celebrate’s God’s blessing”, according to reporting by Reuters.

“We members of the Parish Priest Initiative are deeply appalled by the new Roman decree that seeks to prohibit the blessing of same-sex loving couples. This is a relapse into times that we had hoped we had overcome with Pope Francis,” they group said.

In 2013, Pope Francis’ appointment was considered to be a positive step for LGBTQ+ Catholics, however, after looking into it, we found his relatively progressive comments have never included support for same-sex marriage.

Their statement continued: “We will – in solidarity with so many – not reject any loving couple the future who ask to celebrate God’s blessing, which they experience every day, also in a worship service.”

The Parish Priest Initiative is a group based in Austria and is believed to be currently made up of 350 church officials and 3,000 supporters. Their past campaigns have been pushes for priests to marry and to allow women to become priests.

This statement comes after the Vatican released a decree on 15 March that the Roman Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions and that recognising them on equal footing with heterosexual couples would be “erroneous and misleading”.

This was met with outrage from the LGBTQ+ community, including high profile figures like Elton John.

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