Despite recent Vatican directives, a group of Catholic priests swear to bless the same sex.
The group, called the Parish Priests Initiative, said in a statement that it was “deeply shocked” by the decision and promised not to “reject a loving couple asking to celebrate God’s blessing.” according to Reuters
“We members of the Parish Priests Initiative are deeply shocked by the new Roman decree prohibiting the blessing of same-sex couples. This is a setback in times we hoped to have overcome Pope Francis
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“In the future, in solidarity with so many, we will not reject a loving couple asking to celebrate God’s blessing that they experience every day, including in worship,” they continued.
The Austria-based group was founded in 2006 and claims to have 350 members of the official church and more than 3,000 lay supporters, Reuters reported.
The group has previously advocated for the Catholic Church to marry priests and women to become priests.
The Vatican stated on Monday that the Roman Catholic Church cannot bless the same sex. It said in a statement that recognizing same-sex relationships might seem to equate them with the sacrament between the union of a man and a woman, which would be “false and misleading.”
However, the Church emphasized that “the negative judgment on the blessing of unions of persons of the same sex does not imply judgment on persons”.