In an interview with the Uruguayan newspaper El País, Cardinal Daniel Sturla, SDB, of Montevideo addressed 16 questions—eight of them about the blessing of same-sex couples.
“It’s clear that a priest blesses all persons,” the South American cardinal said, but it is “another thing” entirely “to bless a homosexual couple. There it is no longer the blessing of the persons, but of the couple, and the entire tradition of the Church, even a document from two years ago, says that it’s not possible to do this.” (Cardinal Sturla was referring to this 2021 document.)
Fiducia Supplicans, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings, “creates confusion, because it says that you can bless, but not by means of a rite,” Cardinal Sturla continued. “It’s a no but yes, and a yes but no. The same document says that it doesn’t change the doctrine of the Church.”
“Given the lack of clarity of the document, in my reading of it, I understand that the practice that the Church has had until now must be continued, which is to bless all persons who ask for a blessing but not to bless couples of the same sex,” he added.