Pope Leo is continuing his predecessor’s decision to bless same-sex couples — so long as they don’t look too much like a wedding.

The new pontiff recently said in an interview with Christian newspaper Crux that “the church’s teaching will continue as it is” in regards to marriage equality, while criticizing some ceremonies in which priests have blessed couples as they legally marry.

“I’ve already spoken about marriage, as did Pope Francis when he was pope, about a family being a man and a woman in solemn commitment, blessed in the sacrament of marriage,” Leo said. “But even to say that, I understand some people will take that badly.”

“In Northern Europe they are already publishing rituals of blessing ‘people who love one another,’ is the way they express it, which goes specifically against the document that Pope Francis approved, Fiducia Supplicans, which basically says, of course we can bless all people, but it doesn’t look for a way of ritualizing some kind of blessing because that’s not what the Church teaches,” he continued.

Pope Francis released the document in December, 2023 formally approving priests to bless same-sex couples, so long as the blessing does not resemble a wedding. The church still holds the official position that marriage is between a man and woman, but the ordinance allowed “the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex.”

“That doesn’t mean those people are bad people, but I think it’s very important, again, to understand how to accept others who are different than we are, how to accept people who make choices in their life and to respect them,” Leo added.

Pope Leo’s views on the LGBTQ+ community have not been widely reported, though he has so far taken Pope Francis’ approach of preaching compassion without changing church teaching on marriage equality or the ordination of women. 

Leo lamented at a meeting of bishops in 2012 that Western news media and popular culture fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel,” according to The New York Times . He specifically mentioned the so-called “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.” 

Leo also said in a private meeting with the Vatican diplomatic corps in May that the family is “founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman,” the Associated Press reported.