The divergence of views in the Catholic Church on blessing same-sex unions continues to widen. The Archdiocese of Vienna reports that Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna and co-author of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, would not deny a blessing to same-sex couples.
According to Cardinal Schönborn, the question of whether one can bless same-sex partners belongs in the same category as whether this is possible for those remarried or in partnerships without a wedding license: “If the request for the blessing isn’t a ‘show,’ i.e. only a sort of crowning from an external ritual, if the request for the blessing is honest, is truly the request for the blessing of God upon a life path which two people in whatever sort of situation are attempting to trod, then one will not deny them this blessing.”
As a priest or bishop he would say to them, “You have not reached the highest ideal. But it is important that you live your path on the basis of human virtues, without which there is no successful partnership. And this deserves a blessing.”
Whether a church blessing is the right way of expressing this? “We must think hard about that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Old Testament professor Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger of the University of Vienna has recently stated that there is no basis for the blessing of homosexual partnerships in the Bible.
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