14 past the hour breaking news from the Vatican,
Pope Francis has approved a landmark ruling that will allow
Catholic priests to administer blessings to same sex couples as
long as they are not part of regular church rituals
or liturgies. NBC's Claudio Lavanga joins us from Rome.
Claudio, what more can you tell us about this decision?
Hey Jose. Well this was officialized in a document that
was sent out about a couple of hours ago from
the Vatican's very powerful doctrine office.
Essentially in there he says that from now on Catholic
priests around Catholic priests around the world are allowed to
bless same sex couples.
Provided as you mentioned in your intro,
that they are not mistaken or confused with an actual
marriage,
which in the eyes of the Catholic Church can only
happen between a man and a woman.
Now this comes with a couple of conditions.
It is still related to this fact that it shouldn't
be confused with a marriage.
Well, first of all. He said that the blessing cannot
happen at the same time as a civil union,
and also that during this blessing,
the blessing cannot be accompanied with some rituals like clothing
or gestures or words.
There are more proper to an actual marriage.
Still, despite these conditions, this will be a This comes
as a major breakthrough for the LGBTQ plus community,
especially Catholic LGBTQ Plus around the world,
even though this is not entirely surprising because.
This is exactly what Pope Francis said at the beginning
of October this year when he responded to a letter
written to him by 5 conservative Cardinals who challenged him
to be open to describe what the actual Catholic Church
teaching on homosexuality is right now.
That came before a major meeting with the Cardinals and
he that's back then he responded in a letter saying
exactly that,
that he believes that same sex couples should receive a
blessing.
Provided that this is not confused or mistaken with an
actual marriage,
Well, this of course will come as it will be
welcome this officialization of what he said by LGBTQ plus
Catholics around the world,
but not probably welcomed by these conservative Cardinals who clearly
were against this idea.
Jose.
Claudio La Banga in Rome.
Thank you so much.