So the Pope has offered the blessing of same sex relationships—while still saying that same sex relationships are sinful. You can’t bless something with one hand and condemn it with the other.
This is more of the same homophobia with a slightly better public relations spin on it. A turd augmented with glitter.
Matt Xiv has commented on this on Instagram, and so has Matt Cain in The Guardian.
A lot of other churches started out cautiously with the blessing of same sex unions, but I don’t recall any of them saying that they still regarded same sex relationships as sinful.
And a reminder that many other religions and denominations have been welcoming LGBTQ+ people for decades. Here are the longest-standing examples:
- The Quakers have been welcoming LGBTQ+ people since 1966, and actively campaigned for same sex marriage in churches.
- The Unitarians (UK) and Unitarian Universalists (US) have been welcoming LGBTQ+ people since 1970, ordaining LGBTQ+ ministers since 1977, and actively campaigned for same sex marriage in churches.
- Reform Judaism (US) and Liberal Judaism (UK) have been welcoming LGBTQ+ people for decades.
- Pagans have been welcoming LGBTQ+ people since the 1980s (still patches of homophobia and transphobia but mostly inclusive). Pagans were involved in the campaign for religious same sex marriage in Scotland (Pagans in England still cannot do legal marriages).
- The United Church (Canada) and the United Reformed Churches (UK) are LGBTQ+ welcoming. I’m not sure when this started.
- Shinto (Japan) is LGBTQ+ inclusive.
Changing Paths 
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I learned in college that Cafeteria Catholicism existed and that some adherents–for their own reasons–participated in the Catholic church on this “choose and observe as it suits” basis.
I didn’t actually understand it then, and I still go back and forth trying to figure it out. Some folks unsettled by a religion decide to depart it, after all. (The closest I come, I think, is somebody might like a sport overall, but not each and every one of its rules and customs.)
Honestly, I did not expect Cafeteria Catholicism at the Papal level. But I look at the Roman Catholic Church and see paradox and perplexity. There’s no way to harmoniously perform this dissonance. So it offers–“Sit in the corner, wearing this dunce cap, and happily eat this little piece of birthday cake.”
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