By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – While homosexual men and women must be respected, any form of blessing a same-sex union is “illicit,” said the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The negative judgment is on the blessing of unions, not the people who may still receive a blessing as individuals, it said in a statement published March 15.
The statement was a response to a question or “dubium” that came from priests and lay faithful “who require clarification and guidance concerning a controversial issue,” said an official commentary accompanying the statement.

The response to the question, “Does the church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?” was “Negative.”
“It is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage – i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life – as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex,” the doctrinal office said in an explanatory note accompanying the statement. Pope Francis approved both the statement and the note for publication.
“The Christian community and its pastors are called to welcome with respect and sensitivity persons with homosexual inclinations and will know how to find the most appropriate ways, consistent with church teaching, to proclaim to them the Gospel in its fullness,” the explanatory note said.
The clarification “does not preclude the blessings given to individual persons with homosexual inclinations, who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the revealed plans of God as proposed by church teaching.”
“Rather, it declares illicit any form of blessing that tends to acknowledge their unions as such. In this case, in fact, the blessing would manifest not the intention to entrust such individual persons to the protection and help of God, in the sense mentioned above, but to approve and encourage a choice and a way of life that cannot be recognized as objectively ordered to the revealed plans of God,” said the doctrinal office.
The statement came days before the launch March 19 of a yearlong reflection on “Amoris Laetitia” that will focus on the family and conjugal love.
The date marks the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”), which affirmed church teaching on family life and marriage, but also underlined the importance of the church meeting people where they are in order to help guide them on a path of discernment and making moral decisions.
The doctrinal congregation said in its note that some church communities had promoted “plans and proposals for blessings of unions of persons of the same sex.”
“Such projects are not infrequently motivated by a sincere desire to welcome and accompany homosexual persons, to whom are proposed paths of growth in faith,” it said.
In fact, the question of blessing same-sex unions arose from this “sincere desire to welcome and accompany homosexual persons” as indicated by Pope Francis at the conclusion of the two synodal assemblies on the family, it said.
That invitation, it added, was for communities “to evaluate, with appropriate discernment, projects and pastoral proposals directed to this end,” and in some cases, those proposals included blessings given to the unions of persons of the same sex.
The doctrinal congregation said the church does not and cannot have the power to impart her blessing on such unions and, therefore, “any form of blessing that tends to acknowledge their unions as such” is illicit.
That is because a blessing “would constitute a certain imitation or analogue of the nuptial blessing invoked on the man and woman united in the sacrament of matrimony,” it said, citing paragraph 251 of “Amoris Laetitia,” which reiterated the synod members’ conclusion that “there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.”
“Only those realities which are in themselves ordered to serve those ends are congruent with the essence of the blessing imparted by the church,” it said. As such, it is illicit to bless any relationship or partnership that is outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open to the transmission of life, it added.
Declaring “the unlawfulness of blessings of unions between persons of the same sex is not therefore, and is not intended to be, a form of unjust discrimination, but rather a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite and of the very nature of the sacramentals, as the church understands them,” the doctrinal office said.
The church teaches that “men and women with homosexual tendencies ‘must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.'”
As such, the doctrinal note makes a “fundamental and decisive distinction between persons and the union. This is so that the negative judgment on the blessing of unions of persons of the same sex does not imply a judgment on persons,” it said.
Such blessings are illicit for three reasons, it said:
– In addition to such a blessing implying “a certain imitation or analogue of the nuptial blessing” imparted to a man and a woman united in the sacrament of matrimony, there is the nature and value of blessings.
– Blessings belong to “sacramentals, which are ‘liturgical actions of the church’ that require consonance of life with what they signify and generate,” so “a blessing on a human relationship requires that it be ordered to both receive and express the good that is pronounced and given by the blessing.”
– And, “the order that makes one fit to receive the gift is given by the ‘designs of God inscribed in creation, and fully revealed by Christ the Lord.'” The church does not have power over God’s designs nor is she “the arbiter of these designs and the truths they express, but their faithful interpreter and witness.”
“God himself never ceases to bless each of his pilgrim children in this world, because for him ‘we are more important to God than all of the sins that we can commit,'” the congregation said. “But he does not and cannot bless sin: he blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him. He in fact ‘takes us as we are, but never leaves us as we are.'”

By Jan Kilby Catholic News Service
“Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future” by Pope Francis and Austen Ivereigh. Simon and Schuster (New York, 2020). 160 pp., $26.
“Our Mother Earth: A Christian Reading of the Challenge of the Environment” by Pope Francis. Our Sunday Visitor (Huntington, Indiana, 2020). 103 pp., $16.95.
“Letters of Tribulation” by Pope Francis, with Antonio Spadaro, SJ, and Diego Fares, SJ. Orbis Books (Maryknoll, New York, 2020). 144 pp., $20.
New books by Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of over 1 billion Catholics and a worldwide leader, provide guidance and encouragement for readers.
“Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future” by Pope Francis and Austen Ivereigh offers hope to readers coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises of our time. The authors suggest how to view crises, discern how to deal with them and then take action.
In their prologue, Pope Francis and Ivereigh identify some contemporary crises. They assure readers, however, that God’s mercy will always help them cope. They state that “times of trial” are opportunities for “purification.” They say that these can help people mature and change their priorities. 
Early in the book, they urge people facing a crisis in what they call a culture of “individualism and self-obsession” to “commit to the small, concrete, positive actions.” They assert this is better than responding selfishly or despairing.
They cite recent events signaling a societal call for change. These include the #MeToo movement, the protests over racial injustice after the death of George Floyd while in police custody and the anti-racist protests resulting in the removal of statues. The pope also shares three of his own personal crises.
In the second part, the authors encourage readers to discern the best actions to take in a challenging time. This requires openness, prayer and reflection, and valuing “fraternity over individualism.”
Finally, they suggest how to act on one’s beliefs. This involves respecting universal human rights and values.
The authors’ epilogue contains their advice to readers to let themselves be transformed by the current crises and be of service. They also include an inspiring poem. Ivereigh in a postscript describes how and why the book was written. “Let Us Dream” offers profound, practical and timely advice about surviving turbulent times.

In “Our Mother Earth: A Christian Reading of the Challenge of the Environment,” Pope Francis calls everyone to honor God’s gift of nature. He says that this can reduce pollution, climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the exploitation of resources.
The book includes a preface by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, two opening essays on the pope’s theology of ecology, ideas from 12 of his past encyclicals, audiences and homilies on the subject and a final new essay.
In his first two essays, Pope Francis calls for “global cooperation” to protect nature. He says new policies, programs and habits can help do this. 
In his collection of past works, the pope reminds readers that “the future of all nations is interconnected.” He also says the earth’s resources are gifts and not simply to be used for greed, consumption and profit. He calls Christians to an “ecological conversion,” quoting his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.”
In his final essay, the pope suggests what can give readers hope for a better future – technology, a commitment to conversion, the liturgy and “a universal brotherhood.”
“Letters of Tribulation” by Pope Francis, with Jesuit Fathers Antonio Spadaro and Diego Fares, is a new version of the pope’s 1987 book of the same title.
In the original book, the pope – then a Jesuit priest in Argentina – shared a spiritual approach to dealing with difficulties, based on letters that 18th-century Jesuit superiors general had sent to their bishops coping with persecution. This had led to the Vatican’s suppression of their order in several countries from 1758 to 1831.
The pope’s expanded 2020 book includes a modern tribulation – the sexual abuse of minors and the abuse of power by priests and others in church leadership roles. 
In it, he includes letters that he sent to the bishops and the church and the people of God in Chile in 2018. He had been prompted to write these after reading a Vatican report of 2018 on the problems of clerical sexual abuse there. These showed his desire to restore public trust in the church and church leaders’ integrity with themselves and to heal abuse victims.
The book reveals the spiritual discernment needed by those facing persecution from “cultural and historic events.” The pope says this can help people avoid temptations to “argue over ideas, to not give to the matter the importance that it should be given, to concentrate too much on the persecutors and to keep going over the desolation of one’s mind.” Instead, he says to “move toward virtue and spiritual perfection” and suggests ways to do so.
This excellent book shows Pope Francis’ spiritual and moral maturity and insight about people and the nature of sin and conflict. He offers wise counsel to readers.
Also of interest: “Christ in the Storm: An Extraordinary Blessing for a Suffering World” by Pope Francis. Ave Maria Press (Notre Dame, Indiana, 2020). 104 pp., $19.95.

(Kilby is a writer in San Antonio.)

By Timothy Walch
VATICAN (CNS) – “Vatican Secret Archives: Unknown Pages of Church History” by Grzegorz Gorny and Janusz Rosikon. Ignatius Press (San Francisco, 2020). 370 pp., $34.95.
“The Church and the Modern Era (1846-2005): Pius IX, World Wars and the Second Vatican Council” by David M. Wagner. Ave Maria Press (Notre Dame, Indiana, 2020). 192 pp., $17.95.
“Eight Popes and the Crisis of Modernity” by Russell Shaw. Ignatius Press (San Francisco, 2020). 152 pp., $15.95.
“Rome has spoken; the matter is settled.” Attributed to St. Augustine in the fifth century, this maxim underscored the authority of the pope and the Vatican for more than 1,500 years.

These three books embellish and enhance our understanding of how that power has evolved, particularly in recent times.
Foremost among the three is “The Vatican Secret Archives.” The word “secret” refers to restrictions on use, not on the content of the collections. In 2019, therefore, Pope Francis changed the formal name to the Vatican Apostolic Archives. As the authors note, the Vatican’s archival collections have been used by historians for more than a century.
“The Vatican Secret Archives” is an overview of the history of the church as shown in its documentary collections. The book is handsome, both well-written and well-illustrated. It will be an excellent addition to any church or parish library.
After an initial chapter that explains the structure and content of the Vatican’s 650 collections, the authors focus on eight distinct historical events. These include the trial of the Knights Templar, the Crusades, the paradoxes of the Inquisition, the conquest of the Americas, the trial of Galileo, the French Revolution, the Spanish Civil War and the papacy of Pope Pius XII during World War II.
The stories are compelling and intended for a general audience. Value can be found in the design of each page and the images of documents and other antiquities are exquisite. Also of note are vignettes on curiosities such as the oldest book in the collection, the use of secret codes and the discovery of missing manuscripts.
The majesty of the Vatican came at a price, however. The books by David M. Wagner and Russell Shaw articulate the struggle that popes have had with evolving modernity. Both Wagner’s “The Church in the Modern Era” and Shaw’s “Eight Popes and the Crisis of Modernity” highlight the enormous changes that have taken place in the church and society since the installation of Pope Pius IX in 1846.
There’s been a fundamental tension between church doctrine and the societal changes brought on by industrialism, world wars, sexuality, technology and so much more. Both authors take on these challenges and provide clear overviews of how individual popes have responded to world events.
Wagner’s book is the final installment in the seven-volume series “Reclaiming Catholic History.” The series strives “to communicate history in a way that’s accessible, even entertaining,” notes Mike Aquilina, the series editor. “They see history as stories well told.” And that is a goal that Wagner meets with aplomb.
He’s produced a readable, 10-chapter volume that traces the evolution of the church from 1846 to 2005. Each chapter includes a vignette of a saint of that era as well as a question for readers that focuses on the special challenge of that time.
Wagner also includes substantial notes, an index and a guide to further reading. Together these elements combine to make a thought-provoking book for the general reader.
Shaw is an author who needs little introduction to most readers of Catholic literature. In fact, he’s been writing extensively on church history and related issues for decades. It’s no surprise, therefore, that his most recent book is a lively, well-reasoned overview of 20th century popes from St. Pius X to St. John Paul II.
The book is built on a series of brief biographical essays that Shaw first published in Our Sunday Visitor. In book form, Shaw expands his treatments and includes extensive excerpts from the writing of these popes that gives readers a better understanding of the values and philosophies of each man.
Shaw also includes a separate chapter on the Second Vatican Council and its central role in the history of the church.
Together these three books remind all readers – Catholic and non-Catholic alike – of the central role of the church in the evolution of moral and social values over two millennium.
It’s an extraordinary institution that has been the guardian of knowledge, culture and the moral values that are the foundation of Western civilization. Rome speaks through these books.

(Walch is an historian of American Catholicism and the author of many books including “Parish School” (2016)).