— He suggests that those in the Catholic Church who have resisted it have jumped to ‘ugly conclusions’ because they do not understand it
Pope Francis leads the Angelus prayer at the Vatican, Jan 7, 2024.
by Philip Pullella
Pope Francis on Sunday defended a landmark decision approving blessings for same-sex couples, suggesting that those in the Catholic Church who have resisted it have jumped to “ugly conclusions” because they do not understand it.
In a television interview, Francis made his first public comments since the Dec 18 declaration sparked widespread debate in the Church, with bishops in some countries, particularly in Africa, refusing to let their priests implement it.
“Sometimes decisions are not accepted, but in most cases when decisions are not accepted, it is because they are not understood,” Francis said in response to a specific question about the December declaration.
“The danger is that if I don’t like something and I put it (the opposition) in my heart, I become a resistance and jump to ugly conclusions,” he said during a link from his Vatican residence with the “Che Tempo Che Fa” programme on Italy’s Channel 9.
“This is what happened with these latest decisions on blessings for all,” he said, referring to the declaration known by its Latin title Fiducia Supplicans (Supplicating Trust). It was issued by the Vatican’s doctrinal department and approved by him.
Since the original declaration, the Vatican has been at pains to stress that the blessings did not amount to an approval of gay sex and should not be seen as anything remotely equivalent to the sacrament of marriage for heterosexual couples.
But even a clarification earlier this month from the Vatican’s doctrinal department did not sway bishops in Africa, where in some countries same-sex activity can lead to prison or even the death penalty.
They issued a letter last week saying the December declaration had caused “unrest in the minds of many” and could not be applied because of the continent’s cultural context.
Some bishops in France told their priests they could bless gay individuals but not couples.
In mid-December, the Vatican authorized the blessing of couples “in an irregular situation” for the Church, including LGBT+ couples. A “strong” gesture of recognition, believe some of them, interviewed by franceinfo. But they fear arbitrary application, likely to rekindle the trauma of marriage for all.
“I always dreamed of getting married in a white dress in Church.” The wish of Agathe, a young transgender Catholic aged 26, seemed to her for a long time “inaccessible”because of “the complicated relationship between the Catholic Church and trans people”. If the Vatican does not officially recognize gender transitions, it has nevertheless taken a step towards LGBT+ couples, a month after opening baptism to transgender people.
In a document published on December 18 and approved by Pope Francis, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, a sort of Vatican ministry, authorizes the blessing of couples “in an irregular situation” in the eyes of the Church, including remarried couples and LGBT+ couples. In the Catholic religion, this blessing takes the form of a “short prayer, often accompanied by a gesture, usually a sign of the cross, by which one invokes God Father, Son and Holy Spirit”details the glossary of the Conference of Bishops of France.
A “recognition” welcomed with “joy”
“It’s a gesture that can be given quite widely, which is done to support people”but which is distinguished from sacraments such as baptism or marriage, notes Céline Béraud, sociologist, research director at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) and specialist in issues of gender and sexuality in Catholicism. “This text tries to welcome LGBT+ couples as much as possible with a strong gestureshe assures. This is the first time that something positive has been associated with them in a Church text.. Symbolically, it is a recognition of their state of life (…) which probably does good to people who have suffered ecclesial homophobia for a long time.”
The announcement is actually judged “positive” by Agathe, who is considering taking the plunge with her partner once their relationship is more advanced. “Even if in itself, it is not a marriage or an acceptance of homosexuality by Christian morality, it is still a voice of the Church which blesses a couplealso reacts Edouard, 36 years old. This means that there is a divine echo that comes to accompany the union, and that is very strong.” The thirty-year-old says he “welcomed with joy” the news from the Vatican, as he has plans for a civil marriage with his partner of 29 years, Alexander.
“I also perceive this announcement as a form of reparation, after the damage that certain words of the Church may have had in LGBTQIA communities.”
— Edouard, homosexual Catholic
“I who have long felt illegitimate in the eyes of God, that a man of the Church agreed to bless me, that comforted me”, adds Guillaume, 35, who was blessed during the summer with his partner, Luca, 50, on the eve of their civil marriage. A ceremony performed “in small groups“while the Vatican did not yet authorize this act.
The formalization of an existing practice
Like Guillaume and Luca, couples seen as “irregular” by the Church could already, in fact, “obtain, in a discreet way, a blessing” with certain volunteer priests and deacons, reports Céline Béraud. “There are plenty of people who love each other and who don’t have the right to marry; and there are plenty of people who are married, but who don’t really love each other. For me, it’s love who goes first”justifies Jean-Paul*, priest in the west of France, who has blessed so many LGBT+ couples that he no longer counts them.
For these “LGBT friendly” prieststhe Roman announcement was greeted with relief. “I’m a little more serene: at least it won’t be a witch hunt”cowardly Emmanuel*, priest in a parish in the Paris region who blessed a gay couple in 2023 but feared “let it be known”. However, we should not imagine that the announcement will lead to an influx of requests from LGBT+ couples. “People who want a blessing are very religious, they already have contact with priests. They will obtain it as they have already obtained it for years”believes Céline Béraud.
A very framed blessing
For many, however, the announcement remains bittersweet. In the Vatican text, “LGBT+ people are always reduced to the status of fishermen, It’s really violent.” regrets Edouard, who would have liked the Church to go “further away”. Because opening the blessing to LGBT+ couples does not reflect a normalization, for Catholicism, of homosexuality, bisexuality or transidentity. “This is the classic doctrine of the Church: we condemn acts but we welcome people”notes Céline Béraud. “I think that society is not capable of accepting more than that today, and that it is already enormous”estimates Guillaume.
“When I think of the love that Alexandre and I have for each other, of the sweetness that accompanies our relationship, I don’t have the impression that we are doing anything wrong.” — Edouard, homosexual Catholic
In fact, inequalities compared to heterosexual couples persist. “The text does not return to the doctrine of Catholic marriage, perceived as a sacrament which unites a man and a woman in an indissoluble manner”, recalls Céline Béraud. In this context, the blessing that can be granted to LGBT+ couples is in theory “very restrictive” : She “must be dissociated from the moment of civil union and in no way resemble Catholic marriage, whether in actions, words or clothing worn”explains the sociologist.
Obstacles and reluctance
Several religious leaders have also hastened to limit the Vatican’s message. The bishops of western France have thus advocated the blessing of individuals and not of couples, in order to avoid any “scandal” Or a “confusion” with marriage. The Conference of Bishops of France has called for “a broad and unconditional welcome” people, but again without mentioning couples. African bishops have also warned that they will not bless couples because it “would be in direct contradiction with the cultural ethos of the communitiesAfricans”reports The cross.
These reluctances, shared by some of the faithful, are sometimes accompanied by clearly homophobic words. “VSEveryone comments to say horrible things about homosexuals, what they are entitled to or not, that their relationships are unnatural, against the will of God…”regrets Emmanuel, who fears making those first concerned relive the trauma of marriage for all.
“We talk about people, about Christians, and we treat them as if they don’t exist, as an abstraction.” — Emmanuel*, Catholic priest
Will Agathe have to give up her dreams of a white dress? “No one will go and check how these blessings are made”, assures Céline Béraud. It is therefore a safe bet that, as today, a multitude of forms of blessings will coexist, depending on the wishes of the couple and the person chosen to practice them – from a brief time of prayer to a celebration in company loved ones getting closer to a wedding.
This arbitrary nature does not reassure the LGBT+ believers interviewed. “As these blessings are not uniform across the territory, I am afraid that the options of place and date” of this ceremony “be limited”confides Agathe, who sees this moment as a religious union. “What approach will be proposed to couples who want this blessing? What gestures, what words will be spoken on this occasion?”also worries Edouard, who fears that a blessing given by a priest or deacon with little training in LGBT+ issues is likely to “revive wounds”. And the thirty-year-old concludes: “Much still remains to be done.”
— The adult victim had come forward to the Diocese of Jefferson City, prompting the launch of an administrative and disciplinary process
In this August 2013 News Tribune file photo, Father Ignazio Medina, then serving the St. Stanislaus Parish in Wardsville, Mo., blesses motorcycles and riders in the parking lot of the Elks Lodge in Jefferson City. The Diocese of Jefferson City announced in April 2023 that a Roman Catholic tribunal found the now retired priest guilty of financial misconduct while he was pastor in Wardsville.
A Missouri priest is being disciplined after he allegedly solicited sex from an adult during a confession session, church officials said.
In a news release published last Monday, the Diocese of Jefferson City said Ignazio Medina is now prohibited from serving in any church office, celebrating mass publicly, and holding confessions, after church officials received a report saying he allegedly asked for sex during a confession on April 15, 2022.
Church officials, upon receiving the report, barred him from hearing confessions and from being alone with people outside his family on the property of Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Lake Ozark, Missouri.
Medina was found guilty in November 2023 after an exhaustive administrative and disciplinary process in which he secured a lawyer to provide a defense, the release says.
Bishop W. Shawn McKnight
“I want to be clear that sexual solicitation during confession is a sacrilege, a crime in our Church, and a grave form of abuse; it cannot be tolerated,” said Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City. “With God’s help we must work to continue to eradicate abuse from all corners of our Church. Please join me in prayer for all who are left in pain and confusion when a trusted leader abuses their position of sacred trust and power for sinful purposes.”
Medina did not appeal the guilty decision.
He is still a priest of the Diocese of Jefferson City.
McKnight said he’s grateful for the victim who came forward.
“I also thank all who helped during the investigation and disciplinary process. In addition, I am very grateful for our clergy, parish staff and parishioners who are dedicated to ensuring our diocesan Safe Environment protocols are followed,” he said in the release.
“As we move forward together, I seek the renewal of our Church by facing the awful reality of abuse with the hope and grace of the Gospel which provides the healing we all need,” McKnight added.
A priest who is alleged to have organised a gay orgy in which a man was hospitalised after overdosing on erectile dysfunction pills has been arrested and could face up to eight years in jail.
Father Tomasz Zmarzły from the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels in Poland was charged with sex and drug crimes as well as failure to help someone at medical risk following a police investigation into the incident.
The disgraced clergyman had allegedly thrown a small party with a male prostitute and his friend at his apartment in the city of Dąbrowa Górnicza in September last year.
But when police and paramedics were refused entry after being called when one of the men collapsed, prosecutors launched an investigation into the priest for failing to help the unconscious man.
Leaked telephone recordings suggested that the victim may have been plied with the date rape drug known as GHB.
According to Fakt newspaper which received the recording, a man believed to be the male prostitute is heard talking frantically to the emergency services.
In the call, the paper said he is heard sobbing: ‘He was so high… And they told me that he shouldn’t be touched! I tell them, check, I lifted his head and he was foaming at the mouth…’
He is then allegedly heard saying: ‘There are bars on the doors, I don’t know why… they kicked me out, hurry up!
‘Yeah, they were taking some DHB or something. I don’t know. Some GHB and drops or something… I don’t know, send an ambulance here. And the police.’
When police and paramedics were finally allowed into the apartment, they found a naked man lying unconscious on the floor.
He was taken to hospital where he later recovered and discharged himself.
It later emerged that Father Zmarzły who was suspended following the incident had also been looking for hookups on the gay dating app Grindr.
According to his former partner who contacted local newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Zmarzły turned to the dating app after being unsure about becoming a priest.
The former partner said: ‘At the end of his studies at the seminary, Tomek, aware of his homosexuality, hesitated about whether to accept priestly ordination at all.
‘He [went on] Grindr but he finally decided to become a priest.’
Local outrage in the strongly Catholic town saw one man attempting to burn down the church and ‘the faithful’ stopped their children attending service.
The local mayor also cut off ties with the church which is overseen by the diocese of Sosnowiec.
The disgraced clergyman had allegedly thrown a party with a male prostitute and his friend at his apartment, but police and paramedics were refused entry after being called when one of the men collapsedBlessed Virgin Mary of the Angels
Posting on social media at the time, mayor Arkadiusz Chęciński said: ‘As a city, we are famous for tolerance and respect for all faiths and views.
‘However, due to recent reports from the diocese negatively influencing opinions about the city, the outrage of the inhabitants and the lack of a clear dissociation from these matters forces me to make the unpleasant decision to suspend the city’s cooperation with the Diocese of Sosnowiec until real corrective actions are taken.’
The disgraced priest also faced a backlash from his colleagues.
A fellow member of the clergy said: ‘It’s time to stop pretending. Everyone in our community knew that he had a huge problem with sexuality.
‘However, nothing was done to help him solve the problem.’
Following his arrest this week, prosecutor spokesman Waldemar Łubniewski told the Polish Press Agency: ‘Three of the charges are drug-related offences, one of which is for giving another person an illegal substance.
‘Another charge is related to violating another person’s sexual freedom.
‘The fourth charge concerns causing serious bodily injury and failing to provide assistance to a person whose health and life was in danger.’
The spokesman did not give specifics of the sexual charge, but it is known to carry a maximum penalty of up to eight years in prison.
Zmarzły is yet to comment following his arrest on Monday, but when the scandal was first reported, he sent a statement to the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper denying all the allegations.
— Has the pope’s statement on same-sex marriage created more problems than it solves?
“Fiducia Supplicans” should probably be seen as a culmination of Pope Francis’s personal engagement with the issue of same-sex love, which began with his 2013 remark in response to a question about gay Catholics: “Who am I to judge?”
By Miles Pattenden
Pope Francis has endorsed same-sex couples; or he hasn’t; or he allows them to be blessed but only as separate individuals. The news out of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (DDF) following the publication of Fiducia Supplicans (a declaration “on the pastoral meaning of blessings”) has been various and confusing.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the DDF’s beleaguered Prefect, last week had to issue a press release “clarifying” the declaration’s reception and interpretation.
Fernández, like Pope Francis, claims to be clear about two things:
The blessings discussed in Fiducia Supplicans are not a substitute for marriage — nor should they be confused as offering anything sacramental or equivalent to marriage.
The Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality remains unchanged — that is to say, the Church regards homosexual feelings as regrettable but not sinful. Consummating an act of same-sex love is, however, wrong because all non-potentially procreative sex and all sex outside of marriage is contrary to God’s will for humanity.
This latter position is consistent with the various stances that individual popes, cardinals, and theologians have taken over the course of the twentieth century and during the first two decades of the twenty-first.
Of course, it does not satisfy gay Catholics who argue that the perception that God is against same-sex love is a product of historical bigotry rather than divine revelation. They, moreover, point to the fact that most heterosexual Catholics also routinely ignore the Church’s teachings on sex outside marriage — and this does not stop priests and bishops agreeing to marry them.
Conservative Catholics, on the other hand, sometimes seem to worry that even framing the situation in such terms (hate the sin, love the sinner) is just a cover for those who would prepare the ground to change Church teaching.
Juxtaposing God’s unlimited love and mercy with a somewhat petty, arbitrary prohibition on a particular loving act can be argued to be highlighting an inconsistency in the Church’s position — even if there are sound theological reasons to defend it.
What “Fiducia Supplicans” tried to do
Fiducia Supplicans should probably be seen as a culmination of Pope Francis’s personal engagement with the issue of same-sex love which began with his now celebrated (or notorious) 2013 remark in response to a question about gay Catholics: “Who am I to judge?”
Gay Catholics, and liberal Catholics, have pinned their hopes on him to usher in reform ever since — on this issue and on other issues relating to women in the Church, clerical marriage, divorced Catholics, and sex outside marriage. Conservatives and traditionalists, by contrast, have grown increasingly suspicious.
Last year, Francis responded to five “dubia” (or questions) which a group of conservative cardinals sent to him. From the outside, their effort appeared to be intended to box him in on these subjects — and on the gay question, in particular. In fact, they opened something of a Pandora’s Box, because they gave him the chance to avoid an outright condemnation of being in a gay relationship.
In our relationships with people, we must not lose the pastoral charity, which should permeate all our decisions and attitudes. The defence of objective truth is not the only expression of this charity; it also includes kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness, and encouragement. Therefore, we cannot be judges who only deny, reject, and exclude.
He invoked a concept of “pastoral prudence”, which dictates that a priest:
must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons, that do not convey a mistaken concept of marriage. For when a blessing is requested, it is expressing a plea to God for help, a supplication to live better, a trust in a Father who can help us live better.
In a way, Fiducia Supplicans just repeats this message, clarifying a somewhat ambiguous further statement that Francis made: “Decisions that may be part of pastoral prudence in certain circumstances should not necessarily become a norm.”
The main points the text makes are simply that blessings are ubiquitous in Christianity, they have different meanings, and they need not take on specific ritual or liturgical forms. They can be “spontaneous” and, when spontaneous, they need not be taken to mean something specific. In this way, it is possible to “bless” gay couples (or anyone else) without condoning their lifestyle or actions.
One can sympathise with Cardinal Fernández in thinking that the pope’s 2023 answer to the dubium raised more questions than it answered and might have merited a timely interpretative statement to settle debate about it. But Fiducia Supplicans has patently not settled debate — in large part because neither side is willing to accept it at face value. Both supporters of reform to the Church’s teaching on homosexuality and opponents believe it sets down a marker that will be used in new ways.
Critiquing “Fiducia Supplicans”
For liberal Catholics, Fiducia Supplicans can seem, in some ways, a mere acknowledgement of the obvious: that God is moved by love and mercy and that the point of blessings is to recognise and give thanks for that.
For Cardinal Fernández, the document’s point is probably something different. It attempts to diffuse the issue by defining a series of propositions on which the pope has allowed significant speculation to build.
For instance, if a “blessing” is simply a spontaneous gesture of thanks to God — what is referred to in Fiducia Supplicans as an “ascending” blessing — then it is hardly something that any reasonable person could confuse with the sacramental rite of marriage.
On the other hand, if the blessing is what the document terms a “descending” blessing — a request to God to extend his grace — then it is little more than a prayer. It is an act that asks God to grant something which he may or may not do — but what it asks God remains ambiguous.
Too Jesuitical by half?
The conservative fear about Cardinal Fernández’s interpretation of the blessing of gay couples is this: a gay couple can understand it as a blessing on their union and their friendship, but a conservative priest can, with equal legitimacy, understand it as exhorting God to help the couple, through his grace, to see the error of their ways.
Fernández may think this takes the theological heat out of the matter — by allowing different parties to believe it has different effects — but it does not.
At the moment, no conservative priest will consent to bless a gay couple, which makes the proposition just advanced seem ridiculous. Yet one can imagine why a conservative priest might be anxious that the pope is preparing the ground to require him to do so by creating a Jesuitical loophole for his conscience which can later be closed. The Church of England appears to be going through much the same process of self-inflicted contortions with regards to its own “gay marriage” debate.
These arguments, moreover, form part of wider critiques against Francis and his approach to the pontificate. Conservatives now also criticise Fernández for showing a deplorable lack of judgement.
The apparent naïveté in promulgating Fiducia Supplicans and then clarifying it damages the papacy, as an influx of requests for papal blessings on parchment sheets (a special kind of document all Catholics can request from the Vatican) for same-sex couples now shows. Francis has thus been put in a bind, which he may not have intended. As Christopher Altieri notes:
he can’t refuse [these requests] without appearing stingy and legalistic — “rigid” is a word for it — but he can’t grant them without violating both the letter and the spirit of the very declaration that created the conundrum in the first place.
Such arguments have force, moreover, because gay blessings are just one front in the battle. Recent reports that Francis is being urged to allow priests to marry or even to let lay people have a say in the process for electing his successor are alarming conservatives just as much. And with the battle on so many fronts, it is not clear how best to oppose the pope. It is not even clear which of these causes, if any, he is most serious about advancing in the perhaps short time he has left.
2024 could be a turbulent year for the Catholic communion. No doubt all Catholics are praying for wisdom from all sides as they try to resolve amicably the forces unleashed.
