VATICAN CITY —  Pope Francis on Thursday (Dec 21) warned against inflexible ideological positions that can hinder the Church from seeing reality and moving forward, speaking days after a declaration allowing blessings of same-sex couples that conservatives have condemned.

Pope Francis, who turned 87 on Sunday, made his comments in his traditional Christmas greetings to members of the Curia, the Vatican's central administration.

In the early years of his papacy, Pope Francis made the Christmas greetings an occasion for blistering critiques of the bureaucracy, highlighting what at the time he called its "illnesses" and "diseases".

On Thursday he mentioned the continuing debate between progressives and conservatives 60 years after the Second Vatican Council, which ushered the Church into the modern world.

"Let us remain vigilant against rigid ideological positions that often, under the guise of good intentions, separate us from reality and prevent us from moving forward," he said.

"We are called, instead, to set out and journey, like the Magi, following the light that always desires to lead us on, at times along unexplored paths and new roads," he said.

On Monday, he approved a ruling that priests can administer blessings to same-sex couples under certain condition and as long as they do not resemble marriage and are not part of Church rituals or liturgies.

While the pope's opening to blessings for same-sex couples was welcomed by many, conservatives said it could shake the foundations of the faith and even lead to a Church schism.

In Singapore, the archbishop of Singapore and leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal William Goh, published a statement on Tuesday, reiterating that the Vatican’s declaration was focused “not on the blessing of the unions of same-sex couples”.

He added that the Church is blessing couples who “are in irregular situations” such as those who are divorced and remarried, people struggling to be faithful to God’s commandments and those who aborted their babies.

The Vatican’s declaration serves in essence to provide “guidance in making a distinction between the Church’s official blessings, and a pastoral blessing for all occasions outside the liturgical and sacramental setting”, Cardinal Goh added.

Pastoral blessings or temporal blessings are ad-lib prayers offered spontaneously for a person such as during a meeting with a priest personally or in an informal group setting.

These are different from “official blessings”, which are imparted through the use of approved prayers in a ritual form, in addition to certain conditions being fulfilled. 

Since fellow cardinals elected him 10 years ago, Pope Francis has tried to make the Church more welcoming to people who feel excluded, such as members of the LGBT community, but without changing any part of Church teachings on moral issues.

He told Thursday's gathering that Christians should always be restless and open to change.

"The Christian faith – let us remember – is not meant to confirm our sense of security, to let us settle into comfortable religious certitudes, and to offer us quick answers to life’s complex problems," he said.

Francis said that when God calls, "he sends us on a journey, draws us out of our comfort zones, our complacency about what we have already done, and in this way he sets us free". REUTERS