This week the Pope formally gave Catholic priests the authority to bless same-sex relationships. Though this declaration does not include performing marriages or even civil unions, it is a massive shift in Catholic tradition and a great sign toward full LGBTQ inclusion in the Roman Catholic Church.
It’s welcome good news for tens of millions of LGBTQ people and those who love and support them.
It’s a short step in a very long journey in the right direction.
It’s also not necessary—here or anywhere.
Religion doesn’t get to decide what is sacred.
Human beings can’t ratify or nullify inherent goodness or moral worth.
Every priest, minister, preacher, imam, and rabbi is a flawed and fallible human being whose choice to serve in their various faith traditions doesn’t give them jurisdiction over anyone else—or at least it shouldn’t. That kind of power is above any human being’s pay grade.
As someone who has served in the local church for decades, watching organized religion encroach upon the lives of those both inside and outside their traditions has been a source of profound grief and fierce anger.
Marriage is a civil institution, not a religious one: a right given irrespective of theological perspective. It is only religious for those who choose to incorporate their personal spiritual beliefs into it. And even then, any blessings in the purest sense will come from a source that is far higher than anyone currently standing on the planet.
The idea that the “blessedness” of a human being or their relationship or marriage is even up for debate is grievous. Such thinking has enabled and often nurtured centuries of discrimination and violence in the name of God, when it’s really just blind hatred looking for permission to be punitive.
Most importantly, LGBTQ people who chose to follow Jesus don’t need the Christian or Catholic Church—they have Jesus. That’s the entire point of the New Testament: that there is no middle man separating God and human beings. Whenever anyone tries to place a barrier between someone and their creator, they’re in rebellion of their own tradition.
As welcome as these words from the Pope are and as much as I applaud the courage of a stance that surely places him in great turbulence within his religious tradition, the LGBTQ community doesn’t need his permission, doesn’t require his blessing, and isn’t waiting for his approval.
That goes for any pastor or cleric, regardless of the text they consider holy, the tradition they belong to, or the fervency of their convictions.
Religious people aren’t the gatekeepers of the kingdom, no matter often they tell themselves selves that or how many Bible verses they drop into their social media feeds profiles and incendiary Sunday sermons.
If you believe in God, you could (and should) spend your entire life trying to figure out what that means for you personally and how it can make you a kinder, more compassionate, more loving human being.
But it will never mean you get to superimpose your morality on another person or decide what God would or wouldn’t bless.
And if God is, and that God is love, then God rejoices over love whenever and wherever it shows up.
LGBTQ people aren’t beautiful or blessed or good because someone says they are.
They simply are.
That’s the really good news.
