I was listening to a podcast by a priest speaking about blessings of those who are same-sex attracted and in homosexual unions. It was a well meaning and mostly good talk. Where I theologically disagree with him is when he spoke about the blessing of homosexuals as only being able to be received by those who were same-sex attracted but not those committing homosexual acts.
His logic was that someone in mortal sin cannot receive the merits of a blessing. He considers homosexual acts to be a mortal sin. Thus priests should not give practicing homosexuals a blessing. However, he seems to be putting the concept of a mortal sin in an objective category rather than a subjective. While homosexual acts are considered gravely sinful matter on an objective level, in order for it to be a mortal sin, one must have full knowledge and full consent or freedom for it to be a mortal sin. I might add that this is also true for those in a heterosexual relationship that is not recognised as a marriage by the Church.
Thus a priest can not bless a relationship or union in which the couple express their union in homosexual acts. However, he can bless the individuals involved as a human person who is made in the image of God. Whether the individuals involved are involved in homosexual acts or not, they can in many cases receive a blessing as they are not subjectively in mortal sin due to their lack of full knowledge and/or freedom.
An active homosexual may move from being promiscuous to a stable sexual relationship with one person which is a moving in the right direction towards holiness and the ideal and the priest can impart a blessing on them to help them continue in the right direction. The priest must accompany them on the journey and encourage them to aim for holiness. Nevertheless, this must be done with great sensitivity and love.
The priest or Bishop must take into account the moral culpability of these people involved in this lifestyle and whether they are committing a mortal sin at the stage they are at, in the same way it evaluates those who masturbate. The Catechism states:
"To form an equitable judgment about the subjects' moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability" (from CCC 2352b).
This obsession with mortal sin and confusing grave matter (an objective category) with mortal sin (a subjective category) and not distinguishing between objective and subjective, has and does cause much harm to sensitive souls. That Pope Francis is not just talking about giving a blessing to chaste same-sex attracted people but to those who are sexually active is obvious or this would not be an issue. This is very much about Pope Francis' pastoral policy or principal of accompanying the broken hurting sinners on their journey to the Kingdom of Holiness.
I would say that it is better that the priest err on the side of giving a blessing to all than to refrain from blessing individuals. If the people are truly in mortal sin and thus don't receive the merits of the blessing, one can leave to God but as many today are only subjectively in venial or less serious sin (or not at all in certain cases), then they should not be deprived of such blessings to help and protect them on their journey through life.
Pope Francis has in no way changed the Church's doctrines on sexual morality and marriage but he has made official the pastoral policy followed by most priests since Vatican II and has modified some pastoral disciplines officially in regard to this pastoral policy. Over time the Church may even develop its doctrines to more perfectly reflect the truth, which may then change how we express those truths and provide us with new pastoral perspectives.
There may be a need to change the wording in the Catechism about homosexuality in regard to the word "disordered". Many people not theologically literate perceive it as speaking of the person who is same-sex attracted to be disordered rather than homosexual acts being considered disordered according to the principals of natural law (the internal moral law written in man's heart and reflected also in the biological laws of nature). This is up to the discernment of the Pope.
It must be stressed that the natural law which is also called the natural moral law is not synonymous with the concept of the laws of nature but they are connected. The Divine Law in Scripture and Tradition, the natural law and the laws of nature are all reflections of the Eternal Law in the Mind of God. It is the Pope and the Bishops who teach in union with him that are the one's who discern, assisted by the theologians, the mystics and saints and the sensus fidelium, what is the truth of reality in these sources or reflections of the Eternal Law on earth and how they inter-connect to express what is true, beautiful and good.