Francis and his allies certainly know that the blessing of "relationships" of a certain kind will push things toward full acceptance of the sin that defines them. That's the way human beings and their social organizations work: what is tolerated eventually becomes accepted and even praised, as noted by the British poet Alexander Pope in his 1734 "An Essay on Man:"
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
John Paul II took us through Step 1 — toleration or indifference — with his rewrite of the Catechism, spending much more ink cautioning against making practitioners of this sin feel bad than healing those enslaved to the sin itself.
The Benedict years brought a pause, but the arrival of Francis in the chair of St. Peter inaugurated the Big Push toward the completion of Step 2: Pity. And now he beckons us to take Step 3 — the embrace — by blessing relationships based on this sin.
Will you follow him? Before you choose to do so, reflect on these words by another British author:
"It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit, the carpet ends. A little farther on there are only flagstones, and a little farther on still, even these break beneath your feet.”
Winston Churchill, While England Slept (1936)
