That includes a nearby archdiocese: On Thursday, Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee sent a letter to area Catholics pointing out that the Vatican declaration “is not a sanctioning of irregular relationships (those married outside the church or in same-sex unions).”
The letter goes on to remind priests, “You are not blessing a ‘union.’ You are blessing two individuals as you would bless anyone.”
Ford argued these clarifications show that some church leaders feel “threatened.” “They know this is the beginning of a shift in the Catholic Church’s mentality, at least from an official level, around how same-sex couples are engaged,” Ford said.
Besides the willingness of priests to bless couples, there is the desire of couples to be blessed. Some theologians say couples may be concerned about how a priest might react or may not put much value in a practice that falls short of full acceptance.
“I think there’s definitely a lot of barriers for queer Catholic couples in terms of whether they feel comfortable approaching a priest for a blessing, knowing how much homophobia there is in Catholic spaces,” said Flora X. Tang, a queer Catholic working on a Ph.D. in theology at Notre Dame. She noted that, the new blessing directive aside, “the rules on the books” stipulate that married gay Catholics officially cannot receive Communion at Mass.
And there may be another dynamic at play: Priests in more liberal parishes have offered blessings for LGBTQ couples for years, irrespective of whether the Vatican approved them. “It’s something that isn’t always public,” said Jason Steidl Jack, adding that his relationship with Damian had been blessed by a priest before this week.
Tang said that while she and others are grateful for the new declaration, it in some ways simply formally acknowledges a dynamic that has operated in parish pews for years — whether or not the Vatican acknowledged it.
And blessings, she added, take many forms. “In Catholic spaces, we receive blessings every Sunday at Mass,” she said. “Queer Catholics and priests have been blessing each other through ministry, through presence, through accompaniment for a very long time.”
This article originally appeared here.
