Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 29, 2024 / 14:40 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis suggested that the opposition to the Vatican’s approval of nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples mostly comes from “small ideological groups” with the exception of Africa, which he said is “a special case.”
“Those who vehemently protest belong to small ideological groups,” Francis said in an interview on Monday with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, according to an English translation from the Church-run Vatican News.
Regarding the bishops in Africa, who have expressed some of the strongest criticisms of such blessings, the pontiff said they are “a special case” because “for them, homosexuality is something ‘ugly’ from a cultural point of view; they do not tolerate it.”
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), led by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, published a declaration on Dec. 18, 2023, titled Fiducia Supplicans, which prompted the backlash. The declaration permits “spontaneous” pastoral blessings for “same-sex couples” and other couples in “irregular situations” but does not allow liturgical blessings, recognition of civil unions, or any actions that would make the blessings appear like a marriage.
Bishops around the world have been divided on how to implement the document or whether to implement it at all.
The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, which represents all of the African bishops’ conferences, is refusing to bless same-sex couples. In a statement, it said such blessings could not be carried out on the continent “without exposing themselves to scandals.”
The bishops’ conferences in Hungary and Poland similarly rejected any blessings for same-sex couples, as have various other bishops around the world.
Alternatively, the heads of the bishops’ conferences in other countries, such as Austria, Germany, and Argentina, have embraced the declaration and the opportunity to bless same-sex couples. Some other bishops’ conferences, such as the United States, have accepted the declaration but put a strong emphasis on ensuring that such blessings are not confused as a change in Church teaching.
Francis, in his interview, dismissed the idea that this division could spark a schism in the Catholic Church.
“In the Church, there have always been small groups that manifest reflections of a schismatic nature,” the pope said. “One must let them carry on and pass away… and look ahead.”
Francis said that he trusts that “gradually, everyone will be reassured about the spirit of the declaration,” which he said “aims to include; not divide.” He added that the declaration “invites us to welcome and then entrust people, and to trust in God.”
“The Gospel is to sanctify everyone,” the pontiff said. “Of course, there must be goodwill. And it is necessary to give precise instructions on the Christian life (I emphasize that it is not the union that is blessed, but the persons). But we are all sinners: Why should we make a list of sinners who can enter the Church and a list of sinners who cannot be in the Church? This is not the Gospel.”
Earlier this month, the DDF issued a five-page news release in response to the backlash from some bishops. The news release, written by Fernández, said that the opposition “cannot be interpreted as doctrinal opposition because the document is clear and definitive about marriage and sexuality.”
“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 cardinal said.
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What a pile of condescending, dismissive guff.
See “The most troubling aspect of FS”, Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, Jan. 9, 2024.
Paraphrasing Admiral Farragut, “damn the icebergs, full speed ahead!”
Or, there’s the “unsinkable” Titanic which suffered a starboard-side gash only a quarter of an inch wide (!) but 300 feet long (!!). Not to worry, the ship had no less than 15 watertight compartments all in unison [read 7 continental synods, with only the backward Africa as a merely “cultural” exception and “special case.”] So, on the maiden voyage (!), let the band play on, despite the sloping deck (an “irregular situation”).
And, with it’s uncertain trumpet—since the band “aims to include; not divide.” But, now with Chesterton, the dividing difference between a “fire” and a “firefly,” and with the perennial Church, the difference between blessing a “person” and blessing every manner of “irregular couple.” Equity!
Butt, about the ill-fated Titanic:
“The hull number for Titanic, assigned by the British government, was 390904. When some of the working-class Catholic employees [read “small ideological groups”] in Belfast saw this in a mirror image, they saw the words ‘NO POPE.’ This was enough for them to stop construction [read loyal dissent!]. Management [read clericalists] had to assure the workers that the number was just a coincidence. However, some felt this also spelled doom for the ship” (Lee W. Meridith, “1912 Facts About the Titanic,” 1999, p. 215). DOOM? “One must let them carry on and pass away…”
This detail is not to suggest sedevacantism, but as a voice of loyal dissent wishing only to share, synodally, a fascinating bit of history—probably giving more pause to well-grounded “backwardists” than to fluid “look ahead” amnesiacs.
Old Salt Peter. Admiral Farragut’s famed verse was “Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton, go ahead. Jouett, full speed”, ordered during the Civil War battle of Mobile Bay. Or is paraphrasing Farragut and “icebergs” an allusion to another meaning? As a prominent internet historian I’m interested in your answer.
By paraphrase I simply meant replace “torpedoes” with “icebergs.”
Ah well. My thought was a reference to Card Fernandez’ FS derring do. If it was his project seems headed into a vortex.
At some point, someone will ask of Cardinal Fernandez, “what’s the end game?” Is the answer obvious to any who have closely watched political manipulations in the secular realm?….
Since a frontal assault on Humanae Vitae is a non-starter, instead, is the end game to smother it with Fiducia Supplicans? With its equal blessing not of imperfect persons, but of all “irregular” couplings—from cohabitation, to serial bigamy, to the anti-binary and aggressively politicized homosexual subculture. The “nuclear option” (!) at a time when all war is said to be immoral?
We’re tutored that Sub-Saharan Africa is quarantined as unenlightened, that its bishops are held back by a retrograde “cultural point of view.” A pat-on-the-head judgment from one who not long ago proclaimed, “who am I to judge?”
So, the real and infectious “seamless garment”: from contraception, to abortion, to homosexual activity, to gender theory, to transgenderism, to surrogacy; and, yes, there is also the related and analogous commodification of the rest of God’s creation by the “throwaway culture” (Laudato Si).
But, now we are promised no further unilateral blindsides and blindness. And, even a welcome new document on “human dignity,” rejecting at least the most recent knots on this seamless list—while, what, silently burying the inseparable and now cultural beginnings? Hopefully solid in what it includes but still, what, problematic in what it chooses to omit or leave between the lines?
Centesimus Annus refers to our “transcendent human dignity”…
Africa is a special place for sure but I doubt it’s unique in holding fast to traditional values.
I was visiting in the Caribbean last week and you find the same sort of values on marriage and family. And that applies to the part of the US I live in also.
“In the Church, there have always been small groups that manifest reflections of a schismatic nature,” the pope said. “One must let them carry on and pass away….”
Well, yes! The pope earns my full assent on this rare occasion. ALL in the Church shall pass away, but Christ’s brothers and sisters, His descendants, His believers and followers, shall live with Him forever. The others, the goats, the unrepentant unbelievers and sinners without mercy toward Christ and His brothers, well, they are history. Down under, buried deep, forever flaming together in mystical wish for release, unsatisfied, waiting forever for relief which shall never come.
When one spits the sand from out one’s mouth and the smoke clears from one’s eyes, look and see and taste how God did, does, and will treat Sodom and its inhabitants. now and in the future, since He never does change.
Straight from the heart of a true Catholic Christian, dear Meiron.
It’s beginning to seem that no matter how often and cogently The Truth is witnessed by faithful Catholics around the world, PF is blind & deaf to it. He has long been snared & thus predetermined to serve the father of lies whose chief ambition is Colonization and Corruption of the Catholic Church and other sincerely Christian churches.
This clerical betrayal of Apostolic Witness is the ultimate test for those millions of faithful Little Ones who love & obey God in Christ.
Secure under The Blood of The Lamb & filled with God’s Holy Spirit we’ll stay constant in The Truth & never cease from witnessing all that we have been given by Jesus & His Apostles.
Since God is for us, who can be against us! Blessings from marty
“Since God is for us, who can be against us!”
Certainly not a validly elected Pope, for a validly elected Pope, would affirm The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque) ; a True Vicar of Christ would not serve in contradiction to The Word Of God Incarnate.
The pope asks: “Why should we make a list of sinners who can enter the Church and a list of sinners who cannot be in the Church? This is not the Gospel.”
Neither is it in the Gospel that Jesus, his disciples, or any prophet did call together a specific group of sinners for the purpose of blessing two such sinners. Nowhere does our traditional God or the RCC Magisterium identify coupleship as specifically entitled to blessing because they share the same sin or inclincation for it.
FS is inanity of the most high degree.
Shall the Church next proclaim that priests should bless spouses because they together covet their neighbor’s swimming pool or Mercedes?
Dear Holy Father who is the one making the lists!
A Vatican tutorial on the ideological consolidation of power. Andrea Gagliarducci CNA reports “La Suprema [allusion to the former preeminence of the CDF] is back in a new form. It is not there to discipline wayward theologians or to correct opinions that risk being heretical, but rather to promote theological knowledge”. No longer defender of the faith, the DDF now the dicastery for the dispensing of folderol. Pope Francis just appointed Cardinal Fernandez to prefect Cardinal Kurt Koch’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity to ensure things don’t get too far out of hand with those irritating ‘small ideological groups’.
We read: “[the Africans] are ‘a special case’ because ‘for them, homosexuality is something ‘ugly’ from a cultural point of view; they do not tolerate it’.”
Who said anything about “ugly”? Narcissus fell in love with the beauty (!) of his own reflection…
Likewise, say, as in literary plagiarism where the imitation can still replicate the beautiful. Or, as in the ghost-writer world where the final product is indistinguishable from that of the original puppet master. Or, again, in manipulating human sexuality and peripheralizing binary complementarity (!)…why not closed-loop self-repetition! And, then the more inclusive sp(r)ectrum of alphabetized gender theory—not unlike a random numbers generator and in step with the statistical randomness of a Dawkins non-universe!
Whatever! Oh, the non-ugliness of it all!
Or, is the really “ugly” to not tolerate what is more than a mere “cultural point of view”? So, maybe in less than three more decades the Forward-church can issue a one-millennium condemnation of Peter Damian’s “Gomorrah” (A.D. 1051)…
An inquisition against the truly non-ugly!