That's a pretty big deal for a lot of homosexually-oriented persons, especially when one considers that the Church's doctrine describes us as people who are afflicted with a sort of "condition" it calls an "objective disorder".
The Vatican's doctrinal office, with the 1986 document that continues to be official teaching, says homosexuality is a "more or less strong tendency toward an intrinsic moral evil".
Homosexual activity, the Church teaches, is not a "morally acceptable option".
The only option is chaste celibacy.
This teaching has deeply wounded a lot of LGBT Catholics.
Some of us, over time, have come to the conclusion -- aided by much prayer, spiritual counseling, and ongoing and deep discernment -- that this teaching cannot be true, and, in good conscience, dissent from it.
But certainly not all share this conclusion.
And so it's not difficult to understand why a lot of LGBT Catholics were ecstatic when Francis ordered the Vatican's doctrinal chief, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, to issue a new document stating that even those of us who are in same-sex relationships could request a blessing from a Catholic priest.
The document, a "declaration" titled Fiducia supplicans (FS), is very clear that this is not about blessing the relationship.