Pope suggests blessings for same-sex unions possible in response to 5 conservative cardinals

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has suggested there might be ways to bless same-sex unions. The Vatican on Monday published a letter Francis wrote to five cardinals on July 11 after receiving a list of five questions, or “dubia,” from them a day earlier. In the letter, Francis suggests that such blessings could be studied if there was no implication that the union was a marriage. The Vatican holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman. But even Francis has voiced support for civil laws extending legal benefits to same-sex spouses, and bishops in parts of Europe have been blessing same-sex unions without any Vatican censure.