A former Methodist minister has apparently sought a blessing on her same-sex union from a priest at a parish within the Archdiocese of Chicago, months after the Vatican issued a document on the possibility of giving spontaneous, non-liturgical pastoral blessings to couples in irregular situations.
“Myah always wanted to get married at the chapel of her Alma mater, so I surprised her with a blessing of our marriage!” wrote Kelli Knight, who posted a brief video and photographs of the blessing April 22 on her Instagram account, citygrrl76.
The video pictured Knight, who spent 14 years as pastor of several Chicago-area United Methodist congregations, with a woman addressed in the clip as Myah and a priest resembling Vincentian Father Joseph S. Williams, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Chicago.
The parish, administered by the Vincentian Congregation of the Mission-Western Province and adjacent to DePaul University, was established by the Vincentians in 1898 and serves the university community.
OSV News contacted Father Williams by phone and email April 30 to verify if he is the priest in the video, and if the church pictured is St. Vincent de Paul, as the Instagram location tag on the post indicates. Father Williams responded by email saying that he was off but would call OSV News on May 1.
OSV News also has sent a link to the video to the Archdiocese of Chicago for comment, and a message to Knight via her Instagram account, and is awaiting a reply to both inquiries.
In the video, Knight is dressed in an off-the-shoulder, champagne-colored sequined gown, while Myah is dressed in a black suit with a matching fedora and a white tie, with both women wearing floral wrist corsages. The clip looked to be filmed using a cellphone on a tripod set before the altar, with the camera facing the empty church. The priest, dressed in a white alb and an ivory stole, helps the pair to adjust their position in the camera frame before beginning the blessing.
As the two women face each other holding hands, the priest says, “This is going to be very short, very brief,” and then reads from a printed text in a liturgical binder typically used at Mass for announcements.
The format of the blessing approximates a renewal of wedding vows, with the priest addressing the women by their names, asking, “Do you freely recommit yourselves to love each other as holy spouses and to live in peace and harmony together forever?”
“We do, I do,” they each reply.
The priest then continues, “Loving God, increase and consecrate the love which Kelli and Myah have for one another.”
Although no ring exchange is depicted in the segment, the priest says, “The rings they have exchanged are the sign of their fidelity and commitment. May they continue to prosper in your grace and blessing. We ask this through Christ our Lord.”
He concludes the blessing by making the sign of the cross over the two women, who cross themselves, and saying, “May God’s blessing be yours, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
OSV News has forwarded a link to the video, along with a request for evaluation, to Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which in December 2023 released the formal declaration “Fiducia Supplicans” (“Supplicating Trust”), subtitled “On the pastoral meaning of blessings.”
In his introductory note to the document, Cardinal Fernández said his office had, over the past few years, repeatedly received questions about priestly blessings for same-sex or other unmarried couples in irregular situations. He wrote that the need for a fuller explanation of blessings became apparent after Pope Francis responded to the “dubia” or questions posed by several cardinals in a letter released in early October.
Following the declaration’s release, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a Dec. 18, 2023, statement through its spokesperson, Chieko Noguchi, noting “the declaration affirms” that “the Church’s teaching on marriage has not changed.”
The document “articulated a distinction between liturgical (sacramental) blessings, and pastoral blessings, which may be given to persons who desire God’s loving grace in their lives,” said the statement.
At the same time, the USCCB statement said, the text makes “an effort to accompany people through the imparting of pastoral blessings because each of us needs God’s healing love and mercy in our lives.”
“Fiducia Supplicans” stresses that “one should neither provide for nor promote a ritual for the blessings of couples in an irregular situation.”
In addition, the text specifies that such blessings, “precisely to avoid any form of confusion or scandal … should never be imparted in concurrence with the ceremonies of a civil union, and not even in connection with them. Nor can it be performed with any clothing, gestures, or words that are proper to a wedding.”
The video posted by Knight does not indicate whether the priest performed the blessing spontaneously after a Mass for which he had vested.
However, the clip “does not appear to be a spontaneous non-liturgical blessing in a context like a pilgrimage,” John Grabowski, professor of moral theology and ethics at The Catholic University of America, told OSV News. “Instead it looks like a quasi wedding ceremony done publicly in a church by a vested priest.”
Grabowski noted that “of course, it’s hard to get the full picture from a series of pictures on social media,” but “this does not look like it fits with ‘Fiducia Supplicans'” and “seems to flatly contradict both the letter and the spirit of the DDF’s document.”
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @GinaJesseReina.
