VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has effectively told clergy that they can decide for themselves whether to "bless" homosexual unions.

Responding to a dubia question submitted by five cardinals, as to whether or not the Church can ever accept as a "possible good" objectively sinful situations, such as same-sex unions, Pope Francis  stated that "pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage."

On October 2 five cardinals made public a series of letters which they have sent to Pope Francis, expressing serious doubts and concerns about the Synod on Synodality and recent papal comments.

The signatories of the dubia are: Cardinals Walter Brandmüller, former prefect of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences; Raymond Leo Burke, former prefect of the Apostolic Signatura; Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, former Archbishop of Guadalajara; Robert Sarah, the former prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; and Joseph Zen, the former bishop of Hong Kong.