Vatican Publishes 2024 Letter Rejecting Ritual Blessings for Same-Sex Couples

Vatican City, May 6, 2026: Seeking to clarify ongoing debate surrounding the interpretation of Fiducia Supplicans — the Vatican’s 2023 declaration on pastoral blessings — the Vatican on May 4, 2026 made public a 2024 letter from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) that “categorically rejected” a proposal by the German episcopate to introduce ritualised blessings for couples in same-sex unions and other “irregular situations.” The document warned that such blessings could be interpreted as legitimising unions contrary to Catholic doctrine.

The letter, dated November 18, 2024, was signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and addressed to Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier on behalf of the German bishops. It was released publicly by the Vatican after the text had already begun circulating online, leading to confusion over its status and timing.

According to reports, the DDF was responding to a proposed German “vademecum” — described as a practical handbook for priests — titled 'Blessings for Couples Who Love Each Other'. The guide had been drafted by the German episcopate in October 2024 as an application of the Vatican declaration Fiducia Supplicans within the “pastoral reality” of Germany.

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The Vatican letter reiterated that Fiducia Supplicans did not permit liturgical or ritualised blessings that could resemble marriage rites or morally legitimise relationships outside Church teaching. The DDF cited the declaration’s teaching that the Church “does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing” if it could appear to approve “a union that purports to be a marriage or to an extramarital sexual practice.”

The dicastery objected specifically to elements in the German proposal that referred to an “official regulation” by pastors for couples outside marriage and included an “acclamation”, which the Vatican said is “normally prescribed in the marriage rite”. According to the DDF, such gestures would amount to legitimising the status of those couples in a way contrary to Fiducia Supplicans.

The published letter comes amid wider debate within the Church over the interpretation of Fiducia Supplicans, the 2023 Vatican declaration that allowed priests to offer spontaneous, non-liturgical blessings to individuals in irregular situations, including same-sex couples, while insisting these were not blessings of the union itself.

Cardinal Fernández said the Vatican decided to release the letter because many people were asking about the Holy See’s response to the German bishops after references to it were made publicly.

Courtesy: EWTN