“The Vatican does what the Vatican does, and sometimes the Vatican really hurts people whose lives they are unfamiliar with,” said Jason Steidl, a theologian at St. Joseph’s College who is gay. people.”Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry who has been an advocate for gay Catholics for four decades, noted that “priests in parishes” were already celebrating such blessings. Only a few months after his election in 2013, he famously said, “Who am I to judge?” when asked during a papal flight from Brazil about priests who might be gay. The pope also made headlines in October when he appeared to endorse same-sex civil unions. The Vatican later clarified that the pope believed that gay couples deserved civil protections, including legal rights and health care benefits, but that his comments had not marked a change in church doctrine.

Source: New York Times March 15, 2021 12:36 UTC