Pope Francis presides over the funeral of Italian Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani at the altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, on January 17, 2024.
By Laura Gozzi
Pope Francis has said that sexual pleasure is “a gift from God” that should be “disciplined with patience.”
He also warned against pornography, which he said brought “satisfaction without relationship” and could lead to addiction.
The pope was speaking at his general audience in the Vatican on Wednesday.
The address, part of a series of sermons on vices and virtues, focused on what the pope called “the demon of lust”.
The pontiff said that lust “devastates relationships between people” and added that “daily news is enough to document this reality”.
“How many relationships that started out in the best way have later become toxic relationships?” he asked.
The pope made the comments days after his new head of doctrine, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, came under fire for a book he wrote and published in the late 1990s entitled Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality.
The book, which is now out of print, discussed human sexuality and provided detailed descriptions of male and female experiences during orgasms. Speaking to Catholic online publication Crux, Cardinal Fernández said he wrote the book when he was still young and he “certainly would not” write it now.
Conservative commentators have called the book “perverse”, with one saying it showed Cardinal Fernández was “unfit” to be prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
This is not the first time Pope Francis or Cardinal Fernández have drawn the ire of conservative members of the Catholic community.
In December, Cardinal Fernández introduced a text, later approved by Pope Francis, detailing guidelines allowing priests to bless same-sex couples relationships that were still considered sinful.
Although Cardinal Fernández did emphasise that the stance did not validate the status of same-sex couples in the eyes of the Catholic Church, for many conservatives the damage was done.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who was the church’s head of doctrine under Pope Benedict XVI, firmly denounced the Vatican’s document. In a lengthy response posted online, Cardinal Müller said that a priest blessing a homosexual union would be committing a “sacrilegious and blasphemous act”.
“According to the criterion of this type of blessings, one could even bless an abortion clinic or a mafia group,” Cardinal Müller said.
Prelates around the world also released statements condemning the decision, including American conservatives, who have long been vocal in opposing the pope’s plans for reforming the Catholic Church.
Tensions reached a nadir when the pope evicted outspoken critic US Cardinal Raymond Burke from his Vatican apartment and revoked his salary.
— Rome’s move to allow LGBTQ couples to be blessed has been misunderstood by many, and misrepresented by others.
Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he recites the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023.
For Catholics who know about it, the church’s worldwide Synod on Synodality is bringing either hope or indigestion.
Now more than two years into its proposed process of gathering Catholics everywhere to pray and talk about the best means of spreading the Gospel, the synod’s topics and methods remain unknown to many Catholics, churchgoing or not.
Why? For starters, the project depends on the cooperation of bishops. But more and more bishops are turning away from Pope Francis’ non-judgmental, inclusive attitude.
In the United States, according to Papal Nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre, “Francis is now seen as the big sinner” by some U.S. bishops. There and elsewhere, many bishops are repudiating a recent Vatican document proposing that blessings may be given freely without an investigation of the recipient’s — or recipients’ — moral life.
The December 2023 document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Fiducia Supplicans” — “Begging for confidence” — caused an immediate and ongoing uproar. The document’s purpose, to offer “a specific and innovative contribution to the pastoral meaning of blessings,” reviews the nature of blessings while reiterating the church’s ban on any liturgical recognition of gay marriages.
To be kind, the document is misunderstood by many and misrepresented by others. The controversy has been aided, too, by reports of a 1998 book, titled “Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality,” written by the dicastery’s new prefect, Cardinal Victor Fernández.
Monsignor Victor Manuel Fernández, archbishop of La Plata, officiates Mass at the Cathedral in La Plata, Argentina, Sunday, July 9, 2023. Fernandez was appointed by Pope Francis to head the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican.
Fernández’s book, which he withdrew nearly immediately on publication, includes as its sixth chapter a 16-year-old girl’s imaginary encounter with Jesus as he is held by his mother in the style of the Pieta. Related in the style of the Bible’s poetic Song of Songs, she imagines Jesus resurrected. Those unfamiliar with Spanish mystical tradition and those who are quick to criticize anyone associated with Francis, can find the book, and especially this section, salacious.
The outer edges of Catholic media, seemingly fixated on sexual matters anyway, have been reduced to a bunch of sniggering teenaged boys by the fact that a Catholic cardinal dares to explain the analogies of mystical experience in sexual terms.
Which brings us back to the responses to blessing “same-sex couples,” or “a couple in an irregular situation,” as “Fiducia Supplicans” describes those who may ask to be blessed. It says “an exhaustive moral analysis” should not be a precondition; there is no requirement for “prior moral perfection.” (One thinks of the thousands of persons crowding Saint Peter’s Square each Sunday to receive Francis’ blessing following the Angelus. Imagine personal interviews by some sort of morality police!)
This is not to say there are not difficulties with the document. One problem is that the writer buried the lede. Church groups in Germany and elsewhere have pushed for church acknowledgement and ceremonial ratification of gay marriage and of remarried divorced men and women. But only near its end does the document affirm that liturgical blessings of gay marriages and any rites in conjunction with a civil ceremony are not permitted.
Bishops in large swaths of Africa, all of Russia and the Balkan States have made it clear they will resist performing blessings. In the United States, Australia, Brazil, France, Italy and even Argentina, among other countries, the reaction is mixed. Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of Malawi led the African dissent with a withering Christmas Eve homily. He flatly refused to accept the doctrine office’s teaching (it was apparent from some of his talk that he had missed its flat-out ban on gay marriage).
Another problem with the document is that it was released as the Vatican was already winding down for Christmas, and the Vatican’s attempt at damage control — a clarification by Fernández — only appeared Jan. 4.
There do not seem to have been any earlier attempts at spin control. That is, it appears that no friendly bishops received talking points in advance, and many — if not most — were caught off guard amid Christmas preparations and festivities when the document first appeared.
Even with a clarification, the Roman Catholic bishops of Africa and Madagascar voted to ignore “Fiducia Supplicans.”
All this involves the question of synodality. Individual blessings are freely given for animals, buildings, meals, rosary beads and all manner of things and people. The misunderstanding here, propelled by some media, is rooted in a rejection of both synodality and the beauty of the human person.
Synodality requires listening, and the objecting bishops are reading more into the statement than it intends. The beauty of the human person is the bedrock of Christian belief, and by refusing a blessing on anyone, the objecting bishops are denying that beauty.
Even so, no matter how bumpy the road to synodality may be, Francis is determined to keep trying to move the church forward.
ANGLICANS WERE shocked and excited in mid-November – either that or shocked and appalled – when the Church of England’s governing body narrowly voted to approve church services to bless same-sex civil unions. The church will continue, however, to reserve the term “marriage” for unions between one man and one woman.
The global Anglican community comprises about 85 million adherents in 165 countries. So this is a significant breakthrough within Christendom.
This immediately followed the conservative Orthodox Jewish community in the USA appointing an openly gay man as a rabbi for the first time ever.
And in a development which might make even hardened atheists ponder whether some guiding hand was at work, the head of the vast Roman Catholic church, Pope Francis, announced in mid-December that Catholic priests can now bless same-sex couples also.
The wording of the Vatican decision – in a Declaration titled ‘Fiducia Supplicans On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings’ – was careful. The church is not consecrating, or even approving, the union itself. It is just a blessing to the two people involved.
The declaration does not oblige bishops to provide such blessings, but shows how to proceed if people request them.
This apparently satisfies the rigid text of the Catholic catechism, which still describes gay and bi orientations as “intrinsically disordered”, but offers LGBTQ couples a celebration in church, which straight couples have always received.
These developments bring the three conservative religious communities more into line with the majority of Protestant churches and progressive Jewish communities which have welcomed same-sex couples for some time.
The backlash
Inevitably, reactions have ranged from joy and jubilation to approving nods signalling “about time!” to outright condemnation as heresy and apostasy, which are very bad words inside churches and synagogues.
“This is capitulation by the church… It is making way for the celebration of ‘same-sex marriage’ in all but name… the Church of England is planning to completely disregard the bible’s teaching on marriage.”
“I am under no illusions that what we are proposing will appear to go too far for some and not nearly far enough for others, but it is my hope that what we have agreed will be received in a spirit of generosity, seeking the common good.”
The Catholic backlash has been ferocious, with bishops in Africa and beyond declaring they will simply ignore the new Vatican policy. Bishop Athanasius Schneider in Kazakhstan called the decision a “great deception” and warned of “the evil that resides in the very permission to bless couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples”. A bit harsh.
A long and complex journey
Opponents of the reform claim this defies all Judeo-Christian history. That is not true.
Kittredge Cherry is an author who writes about LGBTQ spirituality at Qspirit.net. She told IA that Pope Francis approving official blessings last month was the first time in centuries, but not the first time ever.
“The Roman Catholic church is coming full circle because before the 14th Century they used to bless same-sex unions,” Cherry said. “This is monumental progress, but the Roman Catholic church still has a long way to go before they honour same-sex marriages as a sacrament equal to heterosexual marriages. With violence rising against LGBTQ people, churches need to support loving same-sex relationships now!”
Why this matters
The violence Cherry references is one reason this development is important to the secular world as well as to church members. Religious beliefs are highly influential in most of the 66 countries where laws still punish LGBTQ activity, sometimes with death. This is down from 74 in 2018 and 71 in 2020, so progress is being made.
Impetus from scholarship and real-life
Recent background includes priests and bishops in Germany, Austria and France openly defying previous bans by celebrating LGBTQ unions in their churches. That led conservative bishops to demand the Pope shut this down. Instead, he has offered approval.
At the core of this reform is the understanding from the sciences that same-sex and bisexual orientations are not sinful choices. They are found in virtually all human, animal and bird societies, at around four per cent of the population, and are just as natural, normal, healthy and God-given as straight orientation.
Cherry believes multiple factors are in play:
The forces for change include participation of same-sex couples in church life and ministry, LGBTQ activism that led many countries to legalize same-sex marriage, and advances in understanding the positive role of queer people in the Bible and church history.
Social attitudes have evolved toward greater acceptance of same-sex relationships, especially among younger generations, so attitudes are becoming more pro-LGBTQ over time.
Progressives like Cherry are pursuing further reform. They hope the “intrinsically disordered” terminology will soon disappear from the catechism. The next chance to advance this will be at the Synod – the global Catholic conference – at the Vatican in October.
“Holy havoc may erupt at the next Synod because progress is often followed by backlash,” Cherry said. “Conservative bishops have strongly rejected the Pope’s approval of same-sex blessings, and LGBTQ Catholics are already planning to push for more progress. The clash of opposing viewpoints will bring a powerful opportunity for change.”
This tussle will continue for some time yet. But there will be no going back.
The new year began with the surprise revival of this perennial issue by a prominent Catholic insider who asserted that the mandate for priests to be unmarried and celibate “was optional for the first millennium of the Church’s existence and it should become optional again.”
This came in a media interview with Archbishop Charles Scicluna, 63, named by Pope Francis in 2015 to lead the church in the nation of Malta. As he indicated, celibacy for all priests, not just those under vows in religious orders, was not made an absolute rule till the Second Lateran Council in A.D. 1139. Back then, one reason was to stop corrupt bishops from handing sons their lucrative posts.
Catholicism is the only branch of Christianity that imposes this requirement.
Sciclina is an especially influential figure due to his 2018 appointment by Francis to a second post as Adjunct Secretary of the Vatican’s all-important agency on doctrine. Over the years, the Vatican has also entrusted the archbishop, who holds doctorates in both secular and canon law, to prosecute delicate cases of sexual abuse by priests.
Married priests already exist
As Scicluna pointed out, the Catholic Church has long welcomed priests who marry prior to ordination in its Oriental Rite jurisdictions, centered in Ukraine, India, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Mideast. Such is also the tradition in Eastern Orthodoxy. (Catholicism occasionally ordains married Protestant ministers who convert.)
The archbishop demanded, “Why should we lose a young man who would have made a fine priest just because he wanted to get married? And we did lose good priests just because they chose marriage.” He said “experience has shown me this is something we need to seriously think about.” For one thing, some priests cope with the rule “by secretly engaging in sentimental relationships” and “we know there are priests around the world who also have children.” Therefore “if it were up to me I would revise the requirement.”
Was Scicluna nudging delegates who next October will attend the second and final session of Pope Francis’s Synod of Bishops at the Vatican? After all, the delegates’ guidebook said local and national discussions leading to the Synod had raised this: “Could a reflection be opened concerning the discipline on access to the priesthood for married men, at least in some areas?” Any such historic proposal voted by the Synod would be merely advisory. The Pope has full power to implement Synod conclusions, or not.
What would Francis do?
How might Francis lean? Last March, he reminded an Argentine news outlet that celibacy “is a temporary prescription” in the western Latin Rite, not a dogma that is unchanging. He added the ambiguous remark that “I do not know if it is settled in one way or another.” In 2019, Francis told journalists “I do not agree with allowing optional celibacy, no,” though he also said he saw leeway to consider exceptions for “pastoral necessity,” as with remote regions that lack priests.
The following year, a book co-authored by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI championed the traditional celibacy discipline. The modern case for celibacy was officially formulated by Pope Paul VI just after the Second Vatican Council in his 1967 encyclical Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (“Priestly Celibacy”).
The encyclical candidly addressed objections raised against the celibacy discipline starting, appropriately enough, with New Testament. Jesus commended workers who “have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it ” (Matthew 19:12). St. Paul wrote concerning unmarried believers that “it is a good thing for them to remain as they are, as I do” (1 Corinthians 7:8). However, neither mandated singleness for the 12 apostles or subsequent Christian ministers.
In the earliest Christian communities, 1 Timothy 3 teaches that a bishop should be “married only once” while “keeping his children under control,” and Titus 1:5-6 says presbyters must be “married only once, with believing children.” The Pope’s encyclical admitted all that. The clear inference is that most or all would be married as a matter of course. But over later centuries, the practice of clergy celibacy became widespread and, in some areas, a requirement.
Notably, the Pope’s encyclical cited a dozen passages in 1 Corinthians but skipped 9:5, where St. Paul asks “do we not have the right to take along a Christian wife, as do the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?” (another name for St. Peter). In other words, the man who in Catholic belief was the church’s first pope was married and traveled with his wife as a Christian evangelist.
A Bible verse ignored
The Catholic Answers Web site likewise ignores the 9:5 verse, thereby demonstrating devotion to celibacy in its treatment of St. Peter. This site admits Peter had been married at one time because we know Jesus cured his mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14-154, Luke 4:38-39). But it echoes a tradition (not any official Catholic view) that he was a widower whose wife “died prior to the ministry of Jesus.”
On other objections, the Pope granted that “some” think celibacy underlies the obvious shortage of priests, and sets up temptations for sexual “waywardness” that damage the church’s witness. Then there’s the contention that the rule prevents development of “a mature and well-balanced human personality,” “disparages human values,” and imposes “loneliness.”
But the Pope insisted that with proper spiritual formation the priest can control his “temperament, sentiments and passions.” And he questioned whether the end of celibacy would “considerably increase the number of priestly vocations.”
Most of the text was a heartfelt argument that the church always makes celibacy voluntary as priests’ “tranquil, convinced and free choice.” It was portrayed as “the total and generous gift of themselves to the mystery of Christ, as well as its outward sign,” that allows full devotion to “pastoral service of the People of God,” with “maximum efficiency and the best disposition of mind, mentally and emotionally.”
Michael Dubour had two immediate reactions to a declaration released Dec. 18 by the Vatican that Catholic priests could bless same-sex couples. The first was elation. Then he wondered what the catch was.
The 53-year-old Provincetown resident had been baptized, made his first communion and was confirmed in the Roman Catholic church. He grew up with the rituals and traditions of a faith that helped form his identity.
But he knew the breadth of anti-gay preaching in the church. The conflict between his sexuality and spirituality eventually caused Dubour to step away from the church for a while.
“Organized religion has caused so much hurt and pain for a lot of us that there’s not a lot of trust there,” he said.
While living in New York City, he realized that there was room for everyone. He started attending St. Francis Xavier in Greenwich Village, a church in the Jesuit tradition that had ministries to gay men and lesbians.
The Provincetown church is part of the Diocese of Fall River. The diocese includes Bristol, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties, and the towns of Mattapoisett, Marion and Wareham in Plymouth County, totaling about 265,000 Catholics, according to the diocese.
Dubour said the spirituality group in Provincetown talks about what it means to be Catholic and gay.
“It’s about overcoming the conflict of what the church tells us how we have to be versus who we really are, and how we can still celebrate and feel Christ in us,” Dubour said. “No one has the right to take that away.”
‘Major step forward for the church’
The Rev. James Martin, calls the declaration — issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and approved by Pope Francis — historic. Martin, 63, is an American Jesuit priest who runs Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic resource. He is the editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine America and author of several books. In 2019 he met with Pope Francis to discuss his ministry with LBGTQ Catholics.
“It’s a sign of the church’s understanding that these couples desire God’s presence in their lives and that the church wants to accompany them,” Martin said. “It’s a major step forward for the church in its relationship with LGBTQ Catholics.”
But the declaration changes nothing about church teaching, Martin said. The blessings cannot be part of a civil union ceremony, nor can they be performed “with any clothing, gestures or words that are proper to a wedding,” according to the Vatican.
Still, Martin calls the declaration supportive of gay people because it recognizes that gay couples desire God’s blessing and God’s presence in their lives.
“It’s a big step forward and misunderstood on both sides of the matter,” Martin said. “Some people say it’s sinful, heretical, disgusting. There are other people saying it’s gone too far, others saying it’s not going far enough. As usual the truth is in the middle.”
A relationship with God, sacraments and tradition
For Don Murray, of Provincetown and Florida, the announcement came as welcome news. The 61-year-old calls himself a “cradle Catholic,” and considers the church a vehicle to God. But it’s his relationship to God that is what’s most important, he said.
Murray and his partner have been together for 32 years. In 2003 they adopted a son. The boy was raised in the Catholic faith, learning about the sacraments and living the traditions of the church. It was their son who asked them to get married, he said. They did in 2015.
Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia had legalized same-sex marriage before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the Constitution guarantees it throughout the country, according to Pew Research Center.
In Massachusetts, on Nov. 18, 2003, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled it was unconstitutional to bar gay couples from marriage. By May 2004, same-sex couples were able to apply for marriage licenses in Massachusetts, making it the first state in the country to legally recognized same-sex marriages.
“People ask how I can be Catholic and gay,” Murray said. “I believe in God, the traditions and values.”
Murray was always able to find a Catholic church that was supportive of the gay community, he said. He is a co-leader of two gay ministries — one at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Tampa and the other at St. Peter’s in Provincetown. It doesn’t bother him that the announcement only pertains to blessings of same-sex couples.
“I’m with Father Jim,” Murray said. The step forward for blessing same-sex couples is small but important, especially because in some countries it’s outlawed to be gay and that’s where the church is growing, he said.
A slow evolution
Brian Michaelan, also a member of the Provincetown gay men’s spirituality group, came to the realization that he was gay after a marriage that brought two children into the world. He was, and still is, a practicing Catholic. He brought his children up Catholic because he wanted them to continue practicing the faith into their adulthood
He was in his 40s when he and his wife divorced. It was then that he began to explore the confluence of his faith and sexuality. His journey took him from Boston to Harwich to Provincetown, from St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Orleans to St. Peter’s in Provincetown, where he found welcome in the church and community at large.
Ten years ago, he decided it was time to let his family and friends know about his sexuality. Everybody was fine with it, he said. Five years ago, he joined the gay spirituality ministry at St. Peter’s.
“The realization of my homosexuality evolved slowly,” he said. “I’m proud of who I am. I’m proud of what I do, and if someone doesn’t like it, it’s their problem.”
The universal church
There are 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide, according to the Vatican. Of 64 countries that have laws criminalizing homosexuality, more than 30 are in Africa where the Catholic church is growing the fastest, according to the Pew Research Center.
“What seems in Sandwich, Yarmouth and even Provincetown to be not a big deal is a huge deal in Kampala and Nairobi,” Martin said. “It is a universal church. That’s something a lot of people forget about.”
Closer to home, the Fall River Diocese posted a notice on its website acknowledging the news of the blessings. Diocese Communications Director John Kearns said the St. Peter the Apostle gay spirituality ministry in Provincetown was the only one he knew of in the diocese.
Bishop Edgar Moreira da Cunha
The Bishop of the Fall River Diocese, the Most Rev. Edgar Moreira da Cunha, S.D.V., was away from the diocese and unable to comment according to Kearns.
