The Vatican has entered full damage control mode less than a month after creating mass confusion in December through its document allowing Catholic priests to bless people in same-sex relationships.

On Thursday, the Vatican released a five-page press release attempting to clarify aspects of Fiducia Supplicans, the landmark document that was released last month allowing priests to bless those in gay partnerships outside of any context that could be considered similar to a wedding. The statement comes after a number of bishops conferences, especially from Africa, rebuked the Vatican by refusing to implement the document.

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In the release, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith, attempted to validate the concerns of the bishops conferences by downplaying the effect of the document while simultaneously defending it.

"Although some Bishops consider it prudent not to impart these blessings for the moment, we all need to grow equally in the conviction that: non-ritualized blessings are not a consecration of the person nor of the couple who receives them, they are not a justification of all their actions, and they are not an endorsement of the life that they lead," Fernandez said. "When the Pope asked us to grow in a broader understanding of pastoral blessings, he proposed that we think of a way of blessing that does not require the placing of so many conditions to carry out this simple gesture of pastoral closeness, which is a means of promoting openness to God in the midst of the most diverse circumstances."

The statement goes on to include specific instructions about how such blessings should be conducted, including that such a blessing should only last 10-15 seconds.

The press release is nothing short of a panicked attempt by the cardinal to clean up a mess he created by releasing an excessively vague and confusing document. Fernandez's latest statement is all the more noteworthy since the initial document said that "no further responses should be expected about possible ways to regulate details or practicalities regarding blessings of this type."

The initial wave of headlines generated by the Vatican's December announcement led many people who did not read the document itself to think that the Catholic Church was legitimizing same-sex relationships. Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie even cited the document to explain why he no longer opposes gay marriage.

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While Fernandez and the Vatican can hand-wring and claim that the media and Christie misinterpreted the document and that its text affirms marriage as an indissoluble bond between one man and one woman, the fact remains that the vague language of the document invited such interpretations. And it was that public interpretation of the document that likely fueled the backlash by the bishops conferences.

The faithful of the Catholic Church look to their leaders to provide unambiguous and clear teachings on moral issues, and priests and bishops, including Fernandez and Pope Francis, have a duty to provide it. This was an entirely avoidable mess that could easily be rectified by withdrawing the initial document.