Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Tuesday, March 16th. I'm Nailibutu. Here's how we're making you smarter today.

What's behind European countries halting the AstraZeneca vaccine? Plus, coming back from maternity leave in a pandemic.

But first, the Vatican's new decree on blessing same-sex unions is today's one big thing.

The Vatican announced yesterday that Catholic priests will not bless same-sex unions, saying in part that, quote, God cannot bless sin.

Given Pope Francis' welcoming stance, many Catholics are confused about what the church's stance is when it comes to the LGBTQ community.

And the big question is, will Catholic priests abide by this decree? Christopher White is a national correspondent with the National Catholic reporter and joins me now from New York.

Good morning, Christopher. Good morning, great to be with you. Why did the Vatican release this decree now?

This decree came from the Vatican's doctrinal office. The office is responding to a question that was posed by either an individual bishop or a group of bishops to clarify a certain specific theological question.

So this is the Vatican's doctrinal office issuing a statement the Pope assigned offer. And the decree is most likely in the real world related to what's known as a synod.

And since take place all around the world, but specifically right now there's one taking place in Germany.

And the bishops of that country have signaled that the question of blessings of same-sex couples will be a live issue during this synod.

In Germany, a number of the bishops have already said we support blessing gay couples as a way of reaching out to them and letting them know that they're welcome in the church.

And that's not a position that's uncommon when you talk to priests in many countries, particularly in the Western world.

What should we take away from this doctrinal office statement when it comes to Pope Francis?

Let's think back to 2013, the advocate, the LGBTQ magazine named Pope Francis as their person of the year.

And we see continually over the past eight years that the Pope has been really terrific when it comes to reaching out to gay couples and saying all the right things.

And he does want to foster an environment of inclusion toward them in the church. But often the Vatican's teaching an official policy doesn't line up with the Pope's personal message.

Based on where the priests are depends on whether or not they'll follow the Vatican on this.

It's on a priest bless everything. They bless houses. They bless pets. They bless guns.

You know, it's it's pretty wild. The number of prayers that exist for blessings.

So I think sure they're going to be a number of priests that privately offer these blessings. But the decree from the Vatican now makes it clear that they do so without the Vatican's official approval.

Christopher White is a national correspondent with the National Catholic Reporter based in New York. Thanks, Christopher.

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