Pope Francis suggested it may be possible to bless same-sex unions in a newly public response to cardinals who questioned the pope’s affirmation of the LGBTQ community in the Catholic Church. In the July letter, which is written in Spanish, he reaffirmed that “the Church has a very clear understanding of marriage: an exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to procreation,” according to the Vatican News. However, he advocated for “pastoral charity.”