Pope Francis is explaining his position on permitting Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples in his television interview set to air on 60 Minutes this weekend.
In December, the 87-year-old pontiff said that allowing same-sex couples to be blessed is “an expression of the Church’s maternal heart,” statements that were made two months after he made waves for apparently suggesting he would be open to some Catholic priests blessing same-sex unions.
In an exclusive interview with Norah O’Donnell, he went into further detail about his position on the issue.
“What I allowed was not to bless the union. That cannot be done because that is not the sacrament. I cannot. The Lord made it that way,” he said during the interview. “But to bless each person, yes. The blessing is for everyone. For everyone.”
“To bless a homosexual-type union, however, goes against the given right, the law of the Church. But to bless each person, why not?” he added.
“The blessing is for all. Some people were scandalized by this. But why? Everyone! Everyone!”
When O’Donnell cited that Pope Francis once said that “Homosexuality is not a crime,” the pontiff responded in agreement, saying, “It is a human fact.”
The clarification comes months after the Vatican’s doctrine office released a document in December 2023 that permitted Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples, which was praised as a “major step forward.”
Two months earlier, the pope had given an initial response to questions formally submitted by five cardinals about the matter, in which he first suggested openness to blessing gay couples.
“God never turns away anyone who approaches him!” the document stated. “Ultimately, a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God. … It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered.”
However, the document emphasized that any “rites and prayers that could create confusion between what constitutes marriage…and what contradicts it are inadmissible.”
The 60 Minutes interview airs on Sunday, May 19, at 7:00 p.m. EST/PST on the CBS Television Network and streaming on Paramount+.
