The Story Behind Pope Francis’ Shocking Reversal on Same-Sex Relationships

The Catholic Church, a 2,000-year-old institution, generally moves at a glacial pace. Changes are typically measured at the scale of generations. But this week, Pope Francis announced that he was allowing priests to bless same-sex relationships—a shocking and complete reversal from 2021, when the Vatican declared that same-sex relationships should not be blessed because God “cannot bless sin.”

How did this reversal of policy—on a major hot-button issue—happen in just two years? As one theologian wondered on Twitter: “Is that the fastest we’ve seen the ‘Vatican’ move … like ever?”

To get the most obvious possible explanation out of the way, there’s no evidence that the pope had a major epiphany or change of heart. And to be clear, he hasn’t bucked long-standing doctrine: The declaration this week emphasized that priests cannot bless couples in official liturgical settings or in any way that could be mistaken for officiating a marriage. The church still doesn’t condone same-sex relationships. Instead, Francis is merely expanding the thinking of blessings to be about giving sinners—that is, all humans—access to care and spiritual succor.

Still, for the Catholic Church, it’s an extraordinary gesture, and one Francis knew would infuriate his conservative opposition. To understand what changed in just two years to allow Francis to take this big step, we have to look at Vatican politics.

When Francis was elected in 2013, he had the distinction of being the first pope since 1415 to lead the church while his predecessor was still alive. It was, unquestionably, awkward. To cope with that awkwardness, as well as soothe anxieties about Francis’ relatively liberal approach, he kept much of his predecessor’s administration in place, honoring a custom of projecting continuity inside the church. That, naturally, led to issues. (“It would be as if Biden did his first term with Trump’s Cabinet,” said David Gibson, the director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture.)

In particular, the projected continuity led to issues in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has traditionally been considered the Vatican’s most important and powerful department. The DDF, an entity once responsible for the Roman Inquisition in the Middle Ages, exists to clarify and defend Catholic doctrine. At the start of Francis’ papacy, the DDF was led by a German ally of Pope Benedict XVI who would go on to accuse Francis of “material heresies.” Francis replaced him with a Spaniard with a similar theological background, signaling, as one Catholic publication put it at the time, that he “did not want a radical shake-up at the Vatican office, but simply a change in personnel.”

In July, though, Francis appointed his third DDF prefect: Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández. Fernández, an Argentine who knew the pope back when he was Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, is a major ally of the pope’s and was a ghostwriter for several of Francis’ most important papal documents. (He is also known, among those who enjoy extremely minor and absurd news cycles, for a scandal over his book Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing. The gist of the book, which was an effort to reach out to young people, is that sex should be tender and emotionally meaningful. It also, quite delightfully, explores “what the poets say” about kissing and includes such lines as “The kiss is the thermometer of love” and “The clearest sign of the death of love is that those tremulous kisses disappear.”) Fernández started his job at the DDF in October, and his presence was immediately felt.

“One thing that’s changed since 2021 is, back then he couldn’t count on key figures in the Vatican,” Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, said about Francis. But Fernández is Francis’ man, Faggioli noted. “And he’s accelerated in these months.”

That acceleration Faggioli is alluding to is most visible in the sudden crackdowns on dissident bishops. And since Fernández started his job, the pope has become bolder in other ways. In October, the pope and Fernández signed a document clarifying that transgender people can be baptized, serve as godparents, and be witnesses at church weddings. (This hasn’t made Fernández popular on the right. “I am not a Freemason, nor an ally of the New World Order, nor a Soros spy infiltrated in the Church,” he told one Catholic publication when discussing his U.S. critics.)

So now, Faggioli said, it appears the Vatican is putting out statements that actually fit what the pope wants. And that tracks with other, seemingly off-the-cuff comments the pope has made. Most famously, in 2013 he responded to a comment about gay priests with “Who am I to judge?” He also has supported legal protections for civil unions; argued that “homosexuality isn’t a crime”; met with transgender Catholics; and expressed support for LGBTQ+ Catholic organizations. “This is something he wanted,” Faggioli said of the new announcement about blessings of same-sex couples. “This thing, of the LGBT Catholics, is one of the situations where he has been very open and consistent from the very beginning. It’s one of the markers of his pontificate.”

As Faggioli and others see it, the 2021 statement rejecting blessings for gay couples is something Francis simply allowed to be published “without his heart,” in part to appease the conservatives in the Vatican and, Faggioli suspected, to see what the reaction would be.

Gibson agreed that the previous position wasn’t really Francis’ doing. “The statement two years ago was technically approved by the pope, but it’s not clear he put much input into it,” he said. “By all indications, it wasn’t reflective of his thinking.”

Up until recently, that had generally been the case for a DDF document put out during Francis’ papacy, Gibson said: You couldn’t be totally sure Francis agreed with it. “Now you know, when Fernández speaks, Pope Francis is behind it,” Gibson added. “That’s giving it a weight and clarity you never had before.”

The timing was also right for Francis to make his own position clear, given the political climate of the Catholic Church. Some European churches had already begun blessing same-sex couples—in official liturgical settings—in a clear challenge to the Vatican. (This new statement from Francis could actually serve as a check to the rebellious left, as well as to the right.) The first stage of the church’s major worldwide summit to discuss potential reforms disappointed progressive Catholics this year by concluding with no official language on LGBTQ+ matters. The very fact that the meeting was happening at all outraged conservative Catholics, who claimed that the pope was spreading “confusion.” People on both sides were clamoring for some kind of clarification. This was an opportune time for Francis to address gay Catholics.

But on a more personal level, Francis is 87, and he may be feeling some urgency. We don’t know if the pope will retire, but he has had some health problems, and the 2024 conclusion of his global discussion project could serve as a kind of capstone for his papacy. Francis has helped reshape the College of Cardinals, which will choose his successor, but he may also want to define his legacy with action. “​​He’s had to tread so carefully not to raise the hackles of the conservative wing,” Gibson said. “But he’s been doing that, and he’s gotten nowhere.”

In less than two weeks, it will have been one year since Pope Benedict died. “That allows Pope Francis a little more freedom to do things that actually move forward,” Faggioli said. Now we’re seeing the results.