Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III. / Credit: Ben P L from Provo, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 29, 2023 / 12:20 pm (CNA).
With some African bishops expressing concerns about the Vatican’s new same-sex blessing declaration, one prominent black Pentecostal leader is voicing his “solidarity” with African Catholics and urging Pope Francis to withdraw the guidelines.
The Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, who is the founder and director of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies and a minister for the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ, wrote an open letter to Pope Francis to “condemn your decision to bless homosexual [couples]” and say that “your black Pentecostal brothers in the United States [stand] in solidarity with our Catholic brothers in Africa and the diaspora.”
“The message conveyed by the authorization of the blessing of couples whose sinful conduct is central to their relationship is easily interpreted in ways that contradict the biblical principle of the complementarity of male and female,” Rivers said in the letter.
“The decision is already almost universally being interpreted as approving the blessing of sexual sin; indeed, it invites the inference that it was meant to be interpreted thus,” he wrote.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued the declaration Fiducia Supplicans on Dec. 18, which permitted “spontaneous” nonliturgical blessings of “same-sex couples.” The declaration reaffirmed the Church’s teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman and maintained the prohibition on any liturgical or semi-liturgical ceremonies for such couples.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the prefect for the dicastery, wrote in a note above the declaration’s introduction that the guidelines imply “a real development from what has been said about blessings in the magisterium and the official texts of the Church.”
Fernández added that these blessings are for those who “do not claim a legitimation of their own status but who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.”
Bishops around the world have been divided on how to properly implement the document and some bishops, mostly in Africa, are refusing to implement it entirely.
The bishops’ conferences in the African countries of Malawi, Zambia, and Cameroon announced they will not implement the declaration. Bishops in Ghana and Kenya have not refused implementation but have emphasized that the Church maintains its disapproval of homosexual activities.
In his letter, Rivers acknowledged that the declaration did not alter the Catholic doctrine on marriage, but he argued that permitting the blessings of homosexual couples bestows some level of legitimacy on the partnership.
“We are well aware, dear Brother, that the document explicitly states that Christian teaching on marriage and the reservation of sexual activity to husband and wife is in no way altered,” Rivers said. “And we thank God for that.”
“And yet, we cannot but observe that by authorizing the blessing of two men precisely as partners (i.e., as a ‘couple’) in a same-sex relationship, there is a recognition of the validity of the partnership — a partnership that is, on the ‘couple’s’ own self-understanding, sexual. (Were it otherwise, the participants would be presenting themselves and requesting a blessing not as a couple, but merely as friends.)”
Rivers wrote that he agreed with the bishops in Cameroon, citing the bishops’ conference’s statement on Fiducia Supplicans: “To speak well of a homosexual couple by an act of blessing would be to encourage a choice and lifestyle that cannot be recognized as objectively ordered to God’s revealed purposes.”
The reverend encouraged the pontiff to withdraw the declaration.
“We … humbly request in the name of the Lord Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever, that you, Peter, withdraw Fiducia Supplicans and abrogate its recognition of same-sex sexual partnerships and its authorization of the blessing of such partnerships or any other type of disordered relationship,” Rivers said.
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Detroit, Mich., Jul 25, 2018 / 12:16 pm (CNA).- Fifty years after Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae, the landmark encyclical reaffirming Church teaching against contraception, many Catholics still don’t really understand the document and what it teaches.
“The woeful fact is that pathetically few have ever read Humanae Vitae or ever heard a homily or defense of it,” said Dr. Janet Smith, a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.
However, she told CNA, “[t]here is encouraging evidence that when they do, they find it persuasive.”
Smith, who is also a consulter to the Pontifical Council on the Family, has written and spoken extensively on the Church’s teaching in Humanae Vitae.
A quarter-century ago, for the 25th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, she released “Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader” in the hopes of helping people see the wisdom in Catholic teaching.
“Much has happened in the last 25 years, including the tremendous influence of the Theology of the Body on our understanding Humanae Vitae, and the scientific evidence of the detrimental effects of contraception on women’s health and male/female relationships. While the first volume remains relevant, an update of essays was needed,” she explained.
In Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI warned of serious social consequences that would follow if the widespread use of contraceptives became accepted.
Smith said that 50 years have shown the “prophetic power” of Humanae Vitae to be “abundantly substantiated,” with clear connections between widespread contraceptive use and the rise in unwed pregnancy, abortion, divorce, pornography, same-sex unions and transgenderism.
“When the baby-making power of sexual intercourse is no longer considered a defining feature of sexual intercourse, virtually all sorts of sexual relationships are permissible, providing, I suppose, that they are consensual,” she said.
One common misunderstanding of Humanae Vitae, Smith said, that “it is based upon an outmoded notion of natural law that gives undue weight to simple biology.”
“The fact is that the literally infinitely greater value of human sexual intercourse is the foundation of the Church’s teaching,” she said, emphasizing that human sexuality has a dual purpose: “the facilitating of a lifelong, faithful committed relationship and the participating in God’s creation of new immortal souls – hence the necessity for human sexual relationships to be rooted in marriage, open to new life.”
Another common misconception, she said, is that Catholics may follow their consciences, even against Church teaching, whereas the Church actually says that “freedom to follow one’s conscience is based on the requirement that individuals form their consciences in accord with Church teaching.”
“I believe that few faithful Catholics [who] prayerfully read Humanae Vitae and seek out further instruction should doubts arise would not find the teaching true to God’s plan for sexuality.”
Most Catholics today fail to follow Humanae Vitae, Smith acknowledged. But rather than finding this figure discouraging, she sees hope in a study finding that Church teaching on sexuality is accepted by 37 percent of Catholic women between the ages of 18 and 34 who attend Mass weekly and go to Confession at least once a year.
“In a Church where the teaching is rarely presented and a culture that mocks the Church’s teaching, such compliance is astonishing,” she said.
And there are other encouraging signs that the Church is working to better reach people with the message of Humanae Vitae, Smith said, such as recent efforts by the U.S. bishops to teach about the issue and encourage priests to do so as well.
In addition, she said, diocesan family life offices and young seminarians and priests have the training and desire to teach and promote Natural Family Planning, through which a couple uses a woman’s natural fertile and infertile periods to pursue responsible parenthood. Unlike contraception, this method is accepted by the Church because it cooperates with human fertility rather than trying to stifle it.
Smith also noted marriage preparation programs that address cohabitation and contraception, as well as new teaching materials inspired by Theology of the Body, websites with resources and testimonies that are widely accessible, and an increase in faithful Catholic colleges and universities.
“My count indicates there are about 40 conferences being held that feature support of Humanae Vitae in the U.S., not to mention the webinars and likely hundreds of supportive pieces being published in print and online journals and blogs,” she added.
“More of all of this needs to be done, but a tremendous start has been made.”
Bishops process into St. Peter’s Basilica for the closing Mass of the first assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 29, 2023. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jul 9, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The guiding document for the final part of the Synod on Synodality, published Tuesday, focuses on how to implement certain of the synod’s aims, while laying aside some of the more controversial topics from last year’s gathering, like women’s admission to the diaconate.
“Without tangible changes, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible,” the Instrumentum Laboris, or “working tool,” says.
The six sections of the roughly 30-page document will be the subject of prayer, conversation, and discernment by participants in the second session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held throughout the month of October in Rome.
Instead of focusing on questions and “convergences,” as in last year’s Instrumentum Laboris, “it is now necessary that … a consensus can be reached,” said a FAQ page from synod organizers, also released July 9, answering a question about why the structure was different from last year’s Instrumentum Laboris.
The guiding document for the first session of the Synod on Synodality in 2023 covered such hot-button topics as women deacons, priestly celibacy, and LGBTQ outreach.
By contrast, this year’s text mostly avoids these subjects, while offering concrete proposals for instituting a listening and accompaniment ministry, greater lay involvement in parish economics and finances, and more powerful parish councils.
“It is difficult to imagine a more effective way to promote a synodal Church than the participation of all in decision-making and taking processes,” it states.
The working tool also refers to the 10 study groups formed late last year to tackle different themes deemed “matters of great relevance” by the Synod’s first session in October 2023. These groups will continue to meet through June 2025 but will provide an update on their progress at the second session in October.
The possibility of the admission of women to the diaconate will not be a topic during the upcoming assembly, the Instrumentum Laboris said.
The new document was presented at a July 9 press conference by Cardinals Mario Grech and Jean-Claude Hollerich, together with the special secretaries of the synodal assembly: Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa and Father Riccardo Battocchio.
“The Synod is already changing our way of being and living the Church regardless of the October assembly,” Hollerich said, pointing to testimonies shared in the most recent reports sent by bishops’ conferences.
The Oct. 2-27 gathering of the Synod on Synodality will mark the end of the discernment phase of the Church’s synodal process, which Pope Francis opened in 2021.
Participants in the fall meeting, including Catholic bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople from around the world, will use the Instrumentum Laboris as a guide for their “conversations in the Spirit,” the method of discussion introduced at the 2023 assembly. They will also prepare and vote on the Synod on Synodality’s advisory final document, which will then be given to the pope, who decides the Church’s next steps and if he wishes to adopt the text as a papal document or to write his own.
The third phase of the synod — after “the consultation of the people of God” and “the discernment of the pastors” — will be “implementation,” according to organizers.
Prominent topics
The 2024 Instrumentum Laboris also addresses the need for transparency to restore the Church’s credibility in the face of sexual abuse of adults and minors and financial scandals.
“If the synodal Church wants to be welcoming,” the document reads, “then accountability and transparency must be at the core of its action at all levels, not only at the level of authority.”
It recommends effective lay involvement in pastoral and economic planning, the publication of annual financial statements certified by external auditors, annual summaries of safeguarding initiatives, the promotion of women to positions of authority, and periodic performance evaluations on those exercising a ministry or holding a position in the Church.
“These are points of great importance and urgency for the credibility of the synodal process and its implementation,” the document says.
The greater participation of women in all levels of the Church, a reform of the education of priests, and greater formation for all Catholics are also included in the text.
Bishops’ conferences, it says, noticed an untapped potential for women’s participation in many areas of Church life. “They also call for further exploration of ministerial and pastoral modalities that better express the charisms and gifts the Spirit pours out on women in response to the pastoral needs of our time,” the document states.
Formation in listening is identified as “an essential initial requirement” for Catholics, as well as how to engage in the practice of “conversation in the Spirit,” which was employed in the first session of the Synod on Synodality.
Pope Francis and delegates at the Synod on Synodality at the conclusion of the assembly on Oct. 28, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media
The document says the need for formation has been one of the most universal and strong themes throughout the synodal process. Interreligious dialogue also is identified as an important aspect of the synodal journey.
On the topic of the liturgy, the Instrumentum Laboris says there was “a call for adequately trained lay men and women to contribute to preaching the Word of God, including during the celebration of the Eucharist.”
“It is necessary that the pastoral proposals and liturgical practices preserve and make ever more evident the link between the journey of Christian initiation and the synodal and missionary life of the Church,” the document says. “The appropriate pastoral and liturgical arrangements must be developed in the plurality of situations and cultures in which the local Churches are immersed …”
How it was drafted
Dubbed the “Instrumentum Laboris 2,” the document released Tuesday has been in preparation since early June when approximately 20 experts in theology, ecclesiology, and canon law held a closed-door meeting to analyze around 200 synod reports from bishops’ conferences and religious communities responding to what the Instrumentum Laboris called “the guiding question” of the next stage of the Synod on Synodality: “How to be a synodal Church in mission?”
After the 10-day gathering, “an initial version” of the text was drafted based on those reports and sent to around 70 people — priests, religious, and laypeople — “from all over the world, of various ecclesial sensitivities and from different theological ‘schools,’” for consultation, according to the synod website.
The XVI Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod, together with consultants of the synod secretariat, finalized the document.
According to the working tool, soliciting new reports and feedback after the consultation phase ended is “consistent with the circularity characterizing the whole synodal process.”
“In preparation for the Second Session, and during its work, we continue to address this question: how can the identity of the synodal People of God in mission take concrete form in the relationships, paths and places where the everyday life of the Church takes place?” it says.
The document says “other questions that emerged during the journey are the subject of work that continues in other ways, at the level of the local Churches as well as in the ten Study Groups.”
Expectations for final session
According to the guiding document, the second session of the Synod on Synodality can “expect a further deepening of the shared understanding of synodality, a better focus on the practices of a synodal Church, and the proposal of some changes in canon law (there may be yet more significant and profound developments as the basic proposal is further assimilated and lived.)”
“Nonetheless,” it continues, “we cannot expect the answer to every question. In addition, other proposals will emerge along the way, on the path of conversion and reform that the Second Session will invite the whole Church to undertake.”
The Instrumentum Laboris says, “Synodality is not an end in itself … If the Second Session is to focus on certain aspects of synodal life, it does so with a view to greater effectiveness in mission.”
In its brief conclusion, the text states: “The questions that the Instrumentum Laboris asks are: how to be a synodal Church in mission; how to engage in deep listening and dialogue; how to be co-responsible in the light of the dynamism of our personal and communal baptismal vocation; how to transform structures and processes so that all may participate and share the charisms that the Spirit pours out on each for the common good; how to exercise power and authority as service. Each of these questions is a service to the Church and, through its action, to the possibility of healing the deepest wounds of our time.”
Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte gives a speech during a campaign rally at Southorn Stadium on March 9, 2025, in Hong Kong, China. / Credit: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
Sir, add Togo to the list of African bishops objecting.
Carl Trueman in First Things points out that FS is going to cause trouble for (orthodox) Protestants too.
That makes two Protestants protesting.
Hey, this is getting interesting!
I grew up attending a small, Fundamentalist church that distributed Jack Chick pamphlets. Far too much of what Pope Francis has done will look to people like my family and former neighbors like it is straight out of one of those pamphlets.
Sir, add Togo to the list of African bishops objecting.
Carl Trueman in First Things points out that FS is going to cause trouble for (orthodox) Protestants too.
That makes two Protestants protesting.
Hey, this is getting interesting!
Well spoken!
As Australians would put it, Good on him. Maybe some Catholic bishops will follow and respond to Pope Francis with some realistic advice.
I grew up attending a small, Fundamentalist church that distributed Jack Chick pamphlets. Far too much of what Pope Francis has done will look to people like my family and former neighbors like it is straight out of one of those pamphlets.