CV NEWS FEED // Prominent liberal Catholics are taking the Vatican’s recent declaration on the blessing of “same-sex couples” and running with it.
Well-known liberal priest Fr. James Martin, SJ, praised the decision Monday.
“As a priest I look forward to blessing same-sex couples, sharing with them the graces that God desires for everyone, something I’ve waited years to do,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter) shortly after the declaration was announced.
Martin also called the move “a major step because it continues Pope Francis’ continual outreach to LGBTQ people.”
“I welcome this new declaration and see it as a much-needed pastoral response to Catholic same-sex couples in loving, committed and self-sacrificing relationships,” he wrote on the website of his organization “Outreach.”
“Outreach” calls itself “An LGBTQ Catholic Resource.”
>> JAMES MARTIN’S OUTREACH: A CLOSER LOOK <<
The New York Times on Tuesday published a report on Martin “making history” by blessing two “married” men. The Times piece featured a photograph of Martin blessing two men who were holding hands. Outreach posted the article, writing:
Outreach editor @JamesMartinSJ made history this morning by offering a Vatican-sanctioned blessing to a gay married Catholic couple, Jason Steidl Jack (who has written several times for Outreach) and his husband, Damian Steidl Jack
Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers of Dresden-Meissen in Germany said the Vatican declaration made him “very happy.”
“This has never happened before in the history of the Church, this milestone that the pope is now making possible here,” he stated. Timmevers suggested the Church is “a little bit guilty” and claimed that Church teaching “marginalized people.”
German Archbishop-designate Herwig Goessl agreed. “This fulfills an important wish of many believers, which was also expressed in the Synodal Path,” he stated.
Controversial German Cardinal Reinhard Marx also appeared to react favorably to the news. “Some in the Universal Church, it is huge to hear that this should be possible,” he said Tuesday.
“With this latest statement, Marx, who is a close advisor to Pope Francis and chair of the German Bishops’ Conference, has reversed his 2018 position against blessings for same-gender couples,” noted New Ways Ministry, a pro-LGBTQ group that considers itself to be “Catholic.”
Francis DeBernardo, editor for New Ways Ministry, called the Vatican announcement “an early Christmas gift” to same-sex couples.
“The Vatican doctrinal office’s previous claim that ‘God does not bless sin’ has been uprooted by the new exhortation, ‘God never turns away anyone who approaches him!’” DeBernardo stated in a press release.
