A group of Catholic priests promise to bless gay unions, defying recent guidance from the Vatican.
The group, called the Parish Priests’ Initiative, said in a statement that it was “deeply dismayed” by the decision and promised that “it will not reject any loving couple who ask to celebrate God’s blessing.” according to Reuters.
“We, the members of the Parish Priests’ Initiative, are deeply terrified by the new Roman decree that seeks to ban the blessing of same-sex couples. This is a relapse into a time we hoped to overcome Pope Francis
Don Lemon, from Pope FrancisCNN, at the Vatican, refusing to bless same-sex unions: “God is not about preventing people”“The group would have said.
“We will not – in solidarity with so many – reject in the future any loving couple who ask to celebrate God’s blessing, which they experience every day, also in a worship service,” they continued.
The group in Austria was founded in 2006 and claims to have 350 members of the official church and more than 3,000 lay supporters, Reuters reported.
The group previously argued that the Catholic Church should allow priests to marry and women to become priests.
Vatican said Monday that the Roman Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions. He said in a statement that the recognition of homosexual unions may seem to associate them with the sacrament between the union of a man and a woman, which would be “wrong and misleading.”
However, the Church stressed that “negative judgment on the blessing of same-sex unions does not imply judgment on persons.”