The pope has officially jumped the shark. While a number of mainline Protestant denominations and prominent Evangelical pastors have changed their position on homosexuality and same-sex marriage in recent years, I never expected that the Catholic Church would do so. On Monday, the pope issued a declaration (Fiducia Supplicans) allowing priests to bless same-sex couples. To be fair, the Catholic Church is still officially saying homosexual behavior is sinful and still rejects same-sex marriage as genuine marriage, but blessing same-sex couples is at least tantamount to a moral approval of homosexual behavior.

Pope Francis’ rationale is that those who seek God’s blessing on their lives should not be subjected to “an exhaustive moral analysis” to receive it. This is preposterous on its face. In the Bible, blessings flow from obedience to God while cursings flow from disobedience. If blessings and cursings are dependent on your moral behavior, then surely a moral analysis is called for. While I agree with the pope that “those seeking a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection,” they should not be asking for God to bless their sin either. It doesn’t require much of a moral analysis to know that same-sex couples are committing a sin that God considers abominable.

To be clear, the blessing is not of an individual, but of a relationship. The pope is not merely saying that individuals who have same-sex attractions can be blessed, but that same-sex couples, as couples, can be blessed by a priest (a relationship that the document calls “irregular” rather than immoral). These couples are asking God to bless their relationship, not just each person in the relationship. How can God bless a sinful relationship that involves abominable actions? How can God give His favor to a relationship that is sinful by nature? Just two years ago, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith agreed, saying the church cannot bless the union of same-sex couples because “God cannot bless sin.” Now, with the pen of the pope, that has changed.

The pope knows full-well that he can’t change Catholic teaching on homosexuality and same-sex marriage overnight, so he has taken this first step to begin evolving the Catholic Church’s doctrine. Once you accept the notion that same-sex relationships can be blessed by God, there is no principled reason to be opposed to homosex or same-sex marriage. It’s just a matter of time before Catholic teaching evolves on those issues too. I’m not Catholic and I disagree with Catholic doctrine, but if I were Catholic, I would rise up against this “Catholic” pope and any diocese who blesses same-sex relationships.