Pope Leo XIV weighed in on sexual morality and blessings for same-sex couples on Thursday aboard the papal plane, telling reporters he believes the Catholic Church focuses too much on equating morality with sexual issues, and not enough on equating morality with issues of justice, equality, and freedom.
“First of all, I think it’s very important that the unity or division of the church should not revolve around sexual matters,” Pope Leo said, according to the National Catholic Register. A reporter had asked him how he intends to preserve the unity of the global church on the issue of blessings for same-sex couples.
“We tend to think that when the church is talking about morality that the only issue of morality is sexual,” he said. “And in reality I believe there are greater and more important issues such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion that would all take priority before that particular issue.”
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But Pope Leo made clear he, like his predecessor, opposes formal blessings for same-sex couples, while acknowledging that informal blessings are permitted, for all.
“We do not agree with the formalized blessing of couples, in this case homosexual couples,” he told reporters.
Leo warned that efforts to allow formal blessings of same-sex couples risk disunity.
“I think that the topic can cause more disunity than unity, and that we should look for ways to build our unity on Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ teaches,” he said.
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Image via Reuters