Pope Francis Defends Blessings for Gay Couples Amidst Controversy

"No one is scandalized if I bless a businessman who exploits people, which is a very serious sin, while it happens if it is a homosexual. It's hypocrisy." Pope Francis, with a quip, once again staunchly defends the highly controversial document on blessings for gay couples in an interview with the weekly magazine Credere - a periodical of the San Paolo publishing group - on the occasion of the foundation's tenth anniversary. After the publication of the Fiducia Supplicans declaration by the dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the controversy did not subside in the Vatican, with entire episcopates refusing to apply it and even the papal clarification that individuals, not couples, are blessed did not help, even though the Vatican document only refers to couples. In short, a mess that is not likely to end soon. "The heart of the document is hospitality." There is no peace in the Vatican, the old Cardinal Zen makes himself heard again to ask the Pope to expel another cardinal. In the interview, he is then asked if he realizes that he has started an epochal change? "No really! They tell me, yes... I go on as I can" responds Pope Bergoglio, once again highlighting that age and health do not matter: "The Church is governed with the head, not with the legs." Bergoglio did not hide his own disdain for priests who pursue comforts, in comfort and luxury: "When I am with the administration, yes I do what I have to do... but when I am with the people, it's another thing. People suffer so much... we clerics sometimes live in comfort... we need to see the work, the suffering of the people." African bishops, as well as several European episcopates, have explained to the Pope that they do not intend to bless unions of same-sex people because it is a path contrary to Christian doctrine, moreover, this type of approach would only generate more confusion among people. Some cardinals have let it be known that if the Pope wanted to bless single gays there was no need to release a text in which gay couples are expressly mentioned. The document of the Dicastery of the Faith was the subject of a further clarification by the Vatican but also the new text was at the center of controversial readings and even of a certain irony, since the suggested blessing for the single gay should not exceed 15 seconds.