"Head of Austrian Bishops’ says priests cannot say ‘no’ to blessing homosexual couples anymore"

The head of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Franz Lackner, has said that priests “can no longer say no” to a request for a “blessing” of a homosexual couple after the publication of the Vatican’s controversial Declaration Fiducia supplicans. 

Lackner expressed his “joy” over the publication of the document that allows the “blessing” of homosexual couples under certain conditions.  

“I believe that the Church recognizes that a relationship between two [people] of the same sex is not entirely without truth: there is love, there is fidelity, there is also hardship shared and lived in faithfulness. This should also be acknowledged,” he said in an interview with Austrian public TV Station ORF. 

When asked by the interviewer if priests will be obliged to “bless” same-sex couples, Lackner said that in sacramental and religious life, it is always difficult to speak of a “must.” However, he added, “Basically, you can no longer say no.”...

He also said that the Church wants to “speak good things in the name of God to couples in non-regular situations who are faithful and loving to each other.”...

Bishop Josef Marketz of the Austrian diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt described the Vatican’s declaration on the blessing of homosexual couples as an “important step towards an open Church.”

He is “happy and grateful” that this turnaround has now been made possible within two years, as the blessing of same-sex couples was still prohibited by the Congregation (now Dicastery) of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in February 2021, which “rightfully hurt and offended many people,” said the Austrian bishop.

ccording to Marketz, Fiducia supplicans is characterized by a “loving view of people’s situation as well as their longing and desire for [a] blessing, so that their life together can succeed well or even better under the loving gaze of God.”

For Marketz, it has “always been very clear that same-sex couples must not be regarded as second-class Christians.”

He stressed that this corresponds to his wish for the Church to be a place where there is “room for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation.”

Bishop Wilhelm Krautwaschl of the diocese of Graz-Seckau also welcomed the new Vatican declaration Fiducia supplicans.

“Anyone who asks for a blessing shows that he or she or both need the saving presence of God, and this blessing must not be denied,” Krautwaschl said.

The Austrian prelate argued that the latest Vatican document is a continuation of the manner of “pastoral care” practiced by Pope Francis since his post-synodal letter Amoris Laetitia.