The Vatican's declaration that same-sex unions are a sin the Roman Catholic Church cannot bless was no surprise for LGBTQ Catholics in the United States, yet it stung deeply nonetheless.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, said her organization's membership includes same-sex couples who have been together for decades, persevering in their love for one another in the face of bias and family rejection.

"The fact that our church at its highest levels cannot recognize the grace in that and cannot extend any sort of blessing to these couples is just tragic," she said.

She was responding to a formal statement Monday from the Vatican's orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying Roman Catholic clergy may not bless such unions since God "cannot bless sin." It was approved by Pope Francis.

Note from Ron: It took the Catholic Church nearly 400 years to admit that Galileo was right in teaching the earth went around the sun. It will not take that long before Catholics, gay and straight, will stop believing the world rotates around the Catholic Church's beliefs. To read the complete above news article, Click Here.)