Vatican City, 18 October, 2023 / 8:13 pm (ACI Africa).
In response to a question about blessing same-sex unions, a Latvian archbishop at the Synod on Synodality warned that telling someone living in sin that “everything is all right” places that person in great spiritual danger.
Speaking at a synod press conference on Oct. 18, Archbishop Zbigņev Stankevičs of Riga, Latvia, said that the Church teaches that people with same-sex attraction should be accepted with respect, quoting Pope Francis that there is room for everyone in the Church.
“We welcome with love and respect, but true love cannot be separated from truth because if love is separated from truth, it is no longer love,” Stankevičs said.
“If there is a person living in sin and we tell this person, ‘Everything is all right with you, it’s OK, go ahead,’ we do harm because this person is in danger. When he dies, he will be in great danger,” he added.
The archbishop also spoke about the complementarity of men and women and in favor of giving women “more room in the Church, but without changing what is in the Gospel and what is in tradition of the Church.”