BREAKING: Catholic Church Authorises Priests To Officiate Same-sex Marriages

 Head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, says priests can now bless same-sex relationships as part of efforts to open up the church to members of the LGBTQ community, the church said on Monday.

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The new declaration was announced by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez after it was endorsed by the Pope, now allowing same-sex couples to receive blessing from the church but maintaining approval is not to amend “the traditional doctrine of the church about marriage.”

It is a major shift from the church’s past doctrine, where arguments against blessing same-sex relationships were made. The Pope maintained that priests should show digression when it comes to blessing same-sex relationships.

“It is precisely in this context,” Cardinal Fernández wrote, “that one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.”

Despite the new declaration paving the way for a major change in the church, where the issue of same-sex relationships has been a major debate between the liberal and the conservative sides for years, the Pope upheld the church’s position that marriage could only exist between a man and a woman.