Tea leaves take on many colors in pope’s response to question on gay blessings

On his return trip to Rome from Africa, Pope Leo XIV took a question about blessing gay couples.

A German journalist on the papal plane asked him about the statement from Cardinal Reinhard Marx, in which the archbishop of Munich and Freising in Germany had said priests should bless couples in same-sex unions or in marriages not recognized as valid by the Catholic Church.

In his response, Leo said the Holy See “has made it clear that we do not agree with the formalized blessing of couples, in this case, homosexual couples, as you asked, or couples in irregular situations, beyond what was specifically, if you will, allowed for by Pope Francis in saying all people receive blessings.”

The pontiff was referring to the December 2023 document from the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, Fiducia supplicans,  which said “pastoral and spontaneous blessings” of any couple were allowed.

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After the publication of Fiducia supplicans Pope Francis later said the controversial DDF document was demonstrating “concretely the closeness of the Lord and of the Church to all those who, finding themselves in different situations, ask for help in carrying forward – sometimes in starting – a path of faith.”

“[T]hese blessings,” Francis said in January 2024,  “outside any context or form of a liturgical character, do not require moral perfection for being received.”

“When a couple spontaneously comes forward to request [these blessings],” Francis also said, “it’s not the union that is blessed, but simply the persons who together made the request.”

“Not the union,” Francis repeated, “but the persons, naturally taking account of the context, the sensibilities, and the places in which one lives, and the most appropriate way of doing it.”

Speaking to journalists on the plane over two years later, Pope Leo said the Vatican had spoken to the German bishops about this issue, and he thought it “very important to understand that the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters.”

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“We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual,” he added.

“And in reality, I believe there are much greater, more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue,” Leo continued.

“When a priest gives a blessing at the end of Mass, when the pope gives a blessing at the end of a large celebration like the one we had today, they are blessings for all people,” Leo said in answer to the question from the German journalist.

“Francis’s well-known [this is the official Vatican edition, which left out Pope Leo using the term ‘infamous’] expression, ‘Tutti, tutti, tutti’, is an expression of the Church’s belief that all are welcome; all are invited; all are invited to follow Jesus, and all are invited to look for conversion in their lives,” he said.

“To go beyond that today, I think that the topic can cause more disunity than unity, and that we should look for ways to build our unity upon Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ teaches,” Leo ended his response to the question.

So, what did he mean?

Many commentators have noted that the pope specifically stated homosexual couples cannot be blessed, and thus effectively abrogated Fiducia Supplicans.

Leo didn’t do that.

He specifically referred to Pope Francis, who himself specified the Vatican document didn’t bless the union, just the people involved. Leo further “clarified” that this was similar to the blessing of the people done at a large event, where everyone is blessed, even if they are in a homosexual union.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who wrote and signed the document, has come under some fire because it has been “clarified” by two pontiffs.

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It should be noted that documents signed by cardinals rather than popes are not considered magisterial, so, in many ways, this debate is a tempest in a teacup.

Yet Pope Leo’s words have caused a small discomfort among more liberal Catholics.

Jesuit Father James Martin, arguably the most prominent defender of LGBTQ+ Catholics in the English-speaking world, posted a statement saying Pope Leo’s overall desire is for the Church to be united.

“One of the things that was hammered home for me in the Synod was how things that can seem tepid in the West (‘What’s the big deal about blessing same-sex couples?,’ as I heard often) are white-hot in other parts of the church (‘Fiducia Supplicans is blessing sin,’ as I heard just as often),” Martin writes.

The Jesuit said that, as far as he could see, Pope Leo was not abrogating Fiducia Supplicans, “which allows under certain conditions, to bless ‘same-sex couples’. (That’s the language used.)”

This seems to imply, at least for other people, it does.

This was the pope in a presser on a plane after a 10-day trip to four countries where same-sex marriage wasn’t really an issue. He had been plagued by questions from the West during the trip – many dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump – and had already been frustrated by the fact that Africa was largely being ignored by the press.

During his interview with Crux Now last year, Pope Leo said the West had an “obsession” with sexuality, saying a fellow cardinal from the global east during the Synod of Bishops on Synodality convened by Pope Francis had lamented that “the western world is fixated, obsessed with sexuality.”

“A person’s identity, for some people, is all about sexual identity, and for many people in other parts of the world, that’s not a primary issue in terms of how we should deal with one another,” Pope Leo told Elise Ann Allen in July 2025.

He admitted that this comment remains “on the back of my mind, because, as we’ve seen at the synod, any issue dealing with the LGBTQ questions is highly polarizing within the Church.”

Nearly a year later, Pope Leo still sees this polarization and is still trying to figure out how to deal with it.

Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome