The bishops said “avoiding confusion and scandal is virtually impossible” if the Church blesses homosexual relationships, but that “individual people living in complete abstinence” can receive a blessing “in a private way, outside the liturgy and without any analogy to sacramental rites,” which would “avoid confusion that this means approval of same-sex relationships.”
“A blessing makes sense when a person asks for it in good faith, i.e. wants to organize his life in accordance with God’s will expressed in the commandments,” the statement read. “The blessing is supposed to help and strengthen a person in breaking away from sin and leading a good life.”
The Polish Episcopal Conference’s statement frequently referenced the responsum issued in 2021, which had ruled out the possibility of blessing homosexual unions. The statement also noted that the 2023 declaration “does not change in any way the current teaching of the Church regarding marriage and family.”
The December 2023 declaration from the Vatican, titled Fiducia Supplicans, avoided any language that would openly conflict with the 2021 responsum by noting that there cannot be liturgical blessings of homosexual unions. Yet, it permitted “spontaneous” pastoral blessings for “same-sex couples” who “do not claim a legitimation of their own status, but who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.”
According to the declaration, these guidelines imply “a real development from what has been said about blessings in the Magisterium and the official texts of the Church.”
To date, the Church’s hierarchy has been deeply divided on how to implement the declaration or whether to implement it at all. Despite this division, the document says that the faithful should not expect any clarifications from the Vatican: “No further responses should be expected about possible ways to regulate details or practicalities regarding blessings of this type.”