re: Pope Francis permits Priests to bless same sex couples in major Vatican doctrine change

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I have backed up everything I have said with scripture.

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Gay couples aren’t trying to live a righteous life, they are asking for their sin to be an exception.

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Why do I struggle to live a chaste life if at the end of the day chastity no longer matters? That’s what blessing a gay union does, it says loudly chastity doesn’t matter.

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There is a HUGE difference between being a sinner (which we all are) and struggling to live a righteous life and being a sinner and accepting it. Gay couples aren’t trying to live a righteous life, they are asking for their sin to be an exception.

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I. The Blessing in the Sacrament of Marriage

4. Pope Francis’ recent response to the second of the five questions posed by two Cardinals[4] offers an opportunity to explore this issue further, especially in its pastoral implications. It is a matter of avoiding that “something that is not marriage is being recognized as marriage.”[5] Therefore, rites and prayers that could create confusion between what constitutes marriage—which is the “exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children”[6]—and what contradicts it are inadmissible. This conviction is grounded in the perennial Catholic doctrine of marriage; it is only in this context that sexual relations find their natural, proper, and fully human meaning. The Church’s doctrine on this point remains firm.

5. This is also the understanding of marriage that is offered by the Gospel. For this reason, when it comes to blessings, the Church has the right and the duty to avoid any rite that might contradict this conviction or lead to confusion. Such is also the meaning of the Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which states that the Church does not have the power to impart blessings on unions of persons of the same sex.

6. It should be emphasized that in the Rite of the Sacrament of Marriage, this concerns not just any blessing but a gesture reserved to the ordained minister. In this case, the blessing given by the ordained minister is tied directly to the specific union of a man and a woman, who establish an exclusive and indissoluble covenant by their consent. This fact allows us to highlight the risk of confusing a blessing given to any other union with the Rite that is proper to the Sacrament of Marriage.

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Next thing you know or the next pope will allow full gay marriage ceremonies in church.

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Having said that, unless I’m mistaken, Roman Catholic Doctrine is that the physical sexual expression of love can only take place between a man and a woman, joined together by the Sacrament of Marriage, and, that the physical expression of marital love is fully open, without hinderance, to the hope and possibility of children.

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All other sexual acts, homosexual, heterosexual, or autoerotic are disordered and sinful. It’s not a witch hunt or persecution of homosexuals. Under the Roman Catholic doctrine, if my understanding is accurate, there’s plenty of sin to go around and it swamps plenty of other boats besides homosexual ones.

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2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,141 tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."142 They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

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Why do I struggle to live a chaste life if at the end of the day chastity no longer matters? That’s what blessing a gay union does, it says loudly chastity doesn’t matter.

It’s a fair question, and frankly, the biggest one.

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