Vatican: Priests can't bless gay unions because God "cannot bless sin"

The Vatican in a decree approved by Pope Francis on Monday said that the Catholic Church's priests cannot bless same-sex unions because God “does not and cannot bless sin," AP reports.

The big picture: Francis previously voiced his support for same-sex civil unions in a documentary last year, breaking from the Roman Catholic Church. Monday's decree made a distinction between "the church’s welcoming and blessing of gay people, which it upheld, but not their unions," AP writes.

• "Many gay Catholics had been hopeful that Francis would create more openness inside the church, not only by speaking more welcomingly about homosexuality but by changing church law," the Washington Post writes.

The decree was written by the Vatican’s orthodoxy office in response to a question posed to the church.

• “The presence in such relationships of positive elements, which are in themselves to be valued and appreciated, cannot justify these relationships and render them legitimate objects of an ecclesial blessing, since the positive elements exist within the context of a union not ordered to the Creator’s plan,” the response said.