{"id":2007,"date":"2023-12-20T10:44:42","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T09:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vaticanfiles.org\/?p=2007"},"modified":"2023-12-20T10:44:43","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T09:44:43","slug":"vf223","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vaticanfiles.org\/es\/2023\/12\/vf223\/","title":{"rendered":"223. The Icing on the Cake of Pope Francis: the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Roman Catholic Church officially opens for the blessing of same-sex unions. After much winking and hinting that this would be the outcome of the current pontificate, the official statement came out, putting pen to paper. “One should neither provide for nor promote a ritual for the blessings of couples in an irregular situation. At the same time, one should not prevent or prohibit the Church\u2019s closeness to people in every situation in which they might seek God\u2019s help through a simple blessing\u201d\u00a0(n. 38). So says the declaration\u00a0Fiducia supplicans<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(18\/12\/2023) by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with explicit approval from Pope Francis.
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The die is cast. What had been a decade-long debate between those who hoped for this opening, considering it an advancement of Catholic morality toward greater inclusiveness, and those who saw it as a sign of Roman Catholicism’s irreversible ruin is now resolved. With a “declaration” of high hierarchical value in the authority of Vatican pronouncements (observers note that the Congregation’s last statement was Joseph Ratzinger’s\u00a0Dominus Iesus<\/em><\/a>\u00a0dating back to 2000), Roman Catholicism is now officially in favor of blessing gay unions, as are many liberal Protestant churches around the world.
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It all began with\u00a0“Who am I to judge?”<\/a>\u00a0(2013) to “All, all, all”<\/a>\u00a0at the Lisbon Youth Day (2023). The trajectory was clear from the start: Pope Francis’ inclusive, embracing, “Catholic” afflatus and his distance from positions that he calls “clerical” and “backwardism” but that are also part of the doctrinal baggage of Roman Catholicism. In between are many steps, not the least of which is the appointment of trusted\u00a0Argentine theologian V\u00edctor Manuel Fern\u00e1ndez as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith<\/a>, who signed the Declaration. Now Francis has his back covered even within the Vatican’s “official” theology. Indeed,\u00a0Fiducia supplicans<\/em>\u00a0openly contradicts another 2021 document of the same Congregation, when Cardinal Ladaria was Prefect. Then, responding to “doubts” precisely about the possibility of blessing same-sex unions, the Vatican had still responded with a (somewhat) clear “no.” Two years later, however, the answer is “yes.” Evidently, the evolution toward Roman Catholic inclusion has accelerated further.
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Of course: the Vatican says that there is no question of recognizing gay unions as marriage, that Catholic doctrine does not change, that the blessing is not a sacrament but a sacramental, … all secondary doctrinal clarifications that do not modify the main point. The Roman Catholic Church today officially offers blessing to same-sex couples: something, moreover, already in place (and for years) in Roman Catholic churches in many European (e.g. Germany and Belgium) and Latin American (e.g. Argentina) countries.
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Roman Catholics must ask themselves whether\u00a0Fiducia supplicans<\/em>\u00a0is consistent with the previous magisterium or is in open conflict with it. By its nature, Roman Catholicism is constantly on the move to possibly encompass the whole world within the institutional-sacramental structures of its Roman system. Not being hinged on and guided by the biblical gospel, Roman Catholicism fluctuates between asserting its Roman power and accentuating its Catholic embrace. In\u00a0Dominus Iesus<\/em>\u00a0(2000) the Vatican restated its Roman understanding of the Catholic Church being the only and true church. With\u00a0Fiducia supplicans<\/em>\u00a0(2023), the Vatican opens its Catholic embrace to same-sex couples.
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Fiducia supplicans<\/em>\u00a0is the icing on the cake of his pontificate. The main ingredients of Francis’ Jesuit recipe have been two: we are\u00a0“all brothers”<\/a>\u00a0(Christians, non-Christians, atheists and agnostics: everyone) and the Catholic Church is the \u201cfield hospital\u201d for all. Now, there is also the icing on the cake.
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Fiducia supplicans<\/em>\u00a0is in open contrast to biblical teaching. Pope Francis is a shrewd Roman Catholic Jesuit who leads his church toward the most \u201ccatholic\u201d form it has ever had, but not toward the gospel of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

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