Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 5, 2024 / 14:56 pm
Nine bishops from France have instructed priests in their dioceses that they may bless homosexual individuals but should refrain from blessing same-sex couples, following new Vatican guidelines that permit nonliturgical pastoral blessings of homosexual couples.
The Archdiocese of Rennes, which is led by Archbishop Pierre d’Ornellas, issued the statement on Jan. 1 on behalf of the bishops from the Ecclesiastical Province of Rennes.
“In our society where marriage has been trivialized by becoming a notion of civil law which ignores the founding specificity of sexual difference, we have the mission to affirm in a prophetic way,” the bishops said, “the great beauty of the design of God who created the human being, man and woman.”
“In this context,” the statement continued, “it is therefore right, as the declaration underlines, not to contribute to creating ‘confusion’ (p. 4, 5, 30, 31, 39) or ‘scandal’ (p. 30, 39). This is why it is appropriate to bless spontaneously, individually, each of the two people forming a couple, whatever their sexual orientation, who ask God’s blessing with humility and with the desire to conform more and more to his holy will.”