Blessings for same-sex couples
Rome permits a blessing it still refuses to call a marriage, and African bishops refuse it outright.
- When
- Known to
- ± 12 hours
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
- Where
- Vatican City · 41.9029° N, 12.4534° E
The declaration Fiducia Supplicans of 18 December 2023 allowed priests to bless couples in irregular situations, including same-sex couples, while restating that marriage is between a man and a woman. Bishops' conferences across Africa declined to apply it, the sharpest public division in the Catholic Church in decades, and the Vatican accepted their refusal.