The Vatican has today issued a press release clarifying that the document on same-sex blessings ‘Fiducia supplicants,’ released last month, does not change the Catholic Church’s doctrine on marriage.
In a statement signed by the Cardinal prefect and the secretary, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican ‘clarifies’ that the document does not change the doctrine of marriage; that pastoral blessings are not comparable to liturgical and ritualised blessings; and that bishops are able to discern the application of Fiducia supplicants according to context.
“We are writing this Press Release to help clarify the reception of Fiducia supplicans, while recommending at the same time a full and calm reading of the Declaration so as to better understand its meaning and purpose,” the Vatican said in Thursday’s press release.
When the document was released in December, news outlets including Associated Press described the document as a “radical shift in policy that aimed at making the church more inclusive.”
However, offering clarification today, the Vatican quoted sections of the controversial document, stating: “The understandable statements of some Episcopal Conferences regarding the document Fiducia supplicans have the value of highlighting the need for a more extended period of pastoral reflection.
“What is expressed by these Episcopal Conferences cannot be interpreted as doctrinal opposition, because the document is clear and definitive about marriage and sexuality.There are several indisputable phrases in the Declaration that leave this in no doubt.”
One such section read: “This Declaration remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage, not allowing any type of liturgical rite or blessing similar to a liturgical rite that can create confusion». One acts in these situations of couples in irregular situations «without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage» (Presentation).”
‘THE CHURCH DOES NOT HAVE THE POWER TO IMPART BLESSINGS ON UNIONS OF PERSONS OF THE SAME SEX’
“Such is also the meaning of the Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which states that the Church does not have the power to impart blessings on unions of persons of the same sex,” the document also read.
Another section quoted read: “For this reason, since the Church has always considered only those sexual relations that are lived out within marriage to be morally licit, the Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when that would somehow offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice» (11).”
“Evidently, there is no room to distance ourselves doctrinally from this Declaration or to consider it heretical, contrary to the Tradition of the Church or blasphemous,” the Vatican added.
‘FAR FROM BEING A SACRAMENT OR A RITE’
The Vatican document goes on to state: “In some places, perhaps, some catechesis will be necessary that can help everyone to understand that these types of blessings are not an endorsement of the life led by those who request them.
“Even less are they an absolution, as these gestures are far from being a sacrament or a rite. They are simple expressions of pastoral closeness that do not impose the same requirements as a sacrament or a formal rite. We will all have to become accustomed to accepting the fact that, if a priest gives this type of simple blessings, he is not a heretic, he is not ratifying anything nor is he denying Catholic doctrine.”
The clarification adds: “We can help God’s People to discover that these kinds of blessings are just simple pastoral channels that help people give expression to their faith, even if they are great sinners.
“For this reason, in giving a blessing to two people who come together to ask for it spontaneously, we are not consecrating them nor are we congratulating them nor indeed are we approving that type of union. In reality the same happens when individuals are blessed, as the individual who asks for a blessing – not absolution – could be a great sinner, but this does not mean we deny him this paternal gesture in the midst of his struggle to survive.”
“If this is clarified as a result of good catechesis, we can free ourselves from the fear that these blessings of ours may express something inadequate. We can be freer and perhaps closer and more fruitful ministers, with a ministry that is full of gestures of fatherhood and hospitality, without fear of being misunderstood.”
The document concludes: “We ask the newly-born Lord to shower a generous and gracious blessing upon everyone so that we can live a holy and happy 2024.”