According to Italian media, Fr. Mignani has a history of public actions in support of same-sex unions, including attending the civil union of two men in his town in 2016.
Referring to that event, Mignani told Il Corriere della Sera this week that “I have a public role and I wanted to say, ‘I’m with them.’”
Mignani also said that after that occasion, and on others, he has been called into meetings with his bishop, Luigi Ernesto Palletti.
The bishop “invited me to reflect,” Mignani said. “But I’ve been doing it all my life. And the more I think, the more convinced I am.”
The Vatican’s statement on same-sex blessings has also elicited strong responses from bishops in Austria and Germany.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the archbishop of Vienna, said Sunday that the Vatican’s rejection of blessings for same-sex couples was marked by a “clear communication error.”
Renewing his earlier criticism of the intervention by the CDF, he told the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation March 28 that he was concerned by both the timing and form of the ruling.
“I wasn’t happy -- neither about the timing nor about the way in which communication was being made,” he said.
German bishops who have spoken in favor of blessing same-sex couples include Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops’ conference, Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, Bishop Helmut Dieser of Aachen, Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz, and Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers of Dresden-Meissen.
Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen said March 29 that he would not take disciplinary action against priests who blessed same-sex couples.
But other German bishops have welcomed the Vatican’s clarification, including Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne, Bishop Stephan Burger of Freiburg, Bishop Ulrich Neymeyer of Erfurt, Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstätt, Bishop Wolfgang Ipolt of Görlitz, Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau, and Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg.
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Mignani said he thought that the CDF’s document “wanted to respond and stop positions already expressed in the German and Austrian Church…”
In the Corriere della Sera interview, the priest also referenced “very strong declarations” from Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp, in Belgium, and said that “the bishop of Chicago even took sides,” a reference to a March 15 statement by Cardinal Blase Cupich.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.