Pope Leo XIV has suggested that the Catholic Church should focus more on matters of justice and equality than on sexual morality. He made his comments while responding to a question about blessing same-sex couples.

Speaking with reporters aboard a flight back to Rome last Thursday, following an 11-day tour of Africa, the first American pope was asked about German Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s recent guidance on formalizing blessings for same-sex couples and couples that include people who have been divorced, Reuters reported.

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Earlier this month, Marx, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, instructed priests and full-time pastoral staff in his archdiocese to refer to a handout developed last spring by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics as the basis for pastoral care.

The document, titled “Blessing Gives Strength to Love,” notes that “The Church recognizes couples who are united in love and offers them support,” according to Blue News. According to the outlet, the German Bishops’ Conference has said that the document is meant to strengthen the practice of blessing the partnerships of “divorced and remarried couples, couples of all gender identities and sexual orientations as well as couples who for other reasons do not want to or cannot receive the sacrament of marriage.”

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The German Bishops’ Conference has said that the guidance is in line with the Vatican’s 2023 declaration, under Pope Francis, in Fiducia Supplicans that Catholic priests may bless the unions of same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing Church doctrine on marriage.

In a letter, Marx noted that a “blessing is not the celebration of a sacramental marriage,” according to The Catholic World Report. However, several archdioceses in Germany have rejected the guidance in “Blessing Gives Strength to Love,” noting that Fiducia Supplicans stipulates that blessings of nontraditional unions must not be “ritually determined by the ecclesiastical authorities.”

Leo seemed to echo these concerns in his response on Thursday.  

“The Holy See has made it clear that we do not agree with the formalized blessing of couples, in this case, homosexual couples, as you asked, or couples in irregular situations, beyond what was specifically, if you will, allowed for by Pope Francis in saying all people receive blessings,” he said, according to Newsweek, adding that the Vatican has spoken to German bishops about the matter.

Leo praised the Vatican’s declaration under Francis that same-sex unions may be blessed, according to Reuters. And while he did not specifically criticize Marx’s decision, he told reporters that “to go beyond” what is in Fiducia Supplicans would likely “cause more disunity than unity.”

At the same time, Leo downplayed the centrality of sexual morality to Catholic doctrine, which differentiates between homosexual attraction and acts, and holds that marriage is exclusively the union of one man and one woman.

“We tend to think that when the Church ​is talking ⁠about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual,” he said, according to Reuters. “In reality, I believe there are much greater, more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue.”

Rev. James Keenan, an academic at Boston College, told Reuters that Leo’s comments represent a new approach for the Church. “This is clearly a prudential judgment by the pontiff,” Keenan said, “that issues of blessing gay marriage ought not eclipse more ​immediate challenges of dictatorships and war.”

LGBTQ+ Catholic groups also welcomed the Pope’s comments, with Dignity USA executive director Marianne Duddy-Burke describing Leo’s approach as “a very significant and overdue reorientation of priorities.”

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of LGBTQ+ Catholic outreach organization New Ways Ministry, told Newsweek he was “heartened” by Leo’s comments.

“He listed other matters, more social matters — justice, equality, freedom — as being of greater concern to the Church,” he told the outlet. “For years, Catholic advocates for LGBTQ+ people have been saying the same thing, so it is good to hear from the pope that he is making a decisive turn away from the church’s obsession with sexual matters.”

Leo, DeBernardo said, has provided “an opening for greater discussion, something that LGBTQ+ Catholics have been desiring and calling for over the course of many decades.”

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