(Yes, I have the same headline as Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. Yes, I told him before I published my piece! No, I did not read it before I scheduled my piece!)
I am tired of everyone thinking that everything Pope Francis says changes Catholic teaching.
I am tired of everyone burying the lede when it comes to Pope Francis and the Catholic Church.
I see this on X:
The news comes from the “Declaration ‘Fiducia Supplicans’ On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings.”
No one bothered to read the document. In paragraphs 5 and 38 (emphasis mine):
5. Such is also the meaning of the Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which states that the Church does not have the power to impart blessings on unions of persons of the same sex.—38. For this reason, 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’s closeness to people in every situation in which they might seek God’s help through a simple blessing. In a brief prayer preceding this spontaneous blessing, the ordained minister could ask that the individuals have peace, health, a spirit of patience, dialogue, and mutual assistance—but also God’s light and strength to be able to fulfill his will completely.
Got it? Ok. Time for the deep dive!
The forward to Fiducia Supplicans stresses that nothing within the text changes the Church’s teachings on marriage. The Vatican knew people would twist the subject matter to fit their agenda.
That’s how we can tell who did not read the document because it literally says from the get-go that nothing changes concerning the Church’s teaching on marriage (emphasis mine):
As with the Holy Father’s above-mentioned response to the Dubia of two Cardinals, this Declaration remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage, not allowing any type of liturgical rite or blessing similar to a liturgical rite that can create confusion. The value of this document, however, is that it offers a specific and innovative contribution to the pastoral meaning of blessings, permitting a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings, which is closely linked to a liturgical perspective. Such theological reflection, based on the pastoral vision of Pope Francis, implies a real development from what has been said about blessings in the Magisterium and the official texts of the Church. This explains why this text has taken on the typology of a “Declaration.”It is precisely in this context that one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.This Declaration is also intended as a tribute to the faithful People of God, who worship the Lord with so many gestures of deep trust in his mercy and who, with this confidence, constantly come to seek a blessing from Mother Church.
The Church teaches marriage as an “exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children.” Anything else is not allowed.
(Notice the word OPEN regarding children. So, yeah, the Catholic Church also doesn’t treat women as solely baby-makers. You don’t HAVE to have children.)
Marriage is so important to the Catholic Church that it is considered a sacrament. You cannot just walk into a Catholic Church and request a wedding. One person has to be a Catholic in good standing with the Church. The priest then has to interview you, ensuring you will live according to the Church and raise your kids according to the Church (he also asks you these questions during the wedding). If the priest believes you won’t live by the Church’s teaching, then he won’t allow you to go to the next step, and the Church won’t allow you to partake in the sacrament of marriage.
So yes, even the Church can deny Catholics a marriage/union blessing.
If you do pass with the priest, you must go through retreats or, for the lack of a better term, couples therapy with an established married couple at your church.
If, after this step, they have reason to believe you won’t live according to the Church, you won’t receive the sacrament of marriage.
The wedding is in the background. The Church places the importance on the marriage. The purpose of these retreats and meetings is to prepare the couple for the actual marriage and how to live as a married couple within the Church.
It is a process in the Catholic Church, much like converting. I am a convert, and my RCIA lasted over a year. Even then, if the teacher and priests do not think you’ll live as a Catholic, they can choose not to give you the sacraments.
Anyway, back to the document.
The individuals in the union can receive the blessing. The actual union cannot receive the blessing.
The Church cannot issue any blessing that goes against that teaching. It must avoid wording that could confuse, too. As I posted above, paragraph 5 has the clincher, while paragraph 6 includes gestures:
5. This is also the understanding of marriage that is offered by the Gospel. For this reason, when it comes to blessings, the Church has the right and the duty to avoid any rite that might contradict this conviction or lead to confusion. Such is also the meaning of the Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which states that the Church does not have the power to impart blessings on unions of persons of the same sex.6. It should be emphasized that in the Rite of the Sacrament of Marriage, this concerns not just any blessing but a gesture reserved to the ordained minister. In this case, the blessing given by the ordained minister is tied directly to the specific union of a man and a woman, who establish an exclusive and indissoluble covenant by their consent. This fact allows us to highlight the risk of confusing a blessing given to any other union with the Rite that is proper to the Sacrament of Marriage.
The priests cannot bless the union or relationship. Paragraph 11 (emphasis mine):
Basing itself on these considerations, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s Explanatory Note to its 2021 Responsum recalls that when a blessing is invoked on certain human relationships by a special liturgical rite, it is necessary that what is blessed corresponds with God’s designs written in creation and fully revealed by Christ the Lord. For this reason, since the Church has always considered only those sexual relations that are lived out within marriage to be morally licit, the Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when that would somehow offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice. The Holy Father reiterated the substance of this Declaration in his Respuestas to the Dubia of two Cardinals.
This is also important because unless your first marriage is annulled, you cannot remarry in the Catholic Church. It’s hard to annul a marriage, too. In the eyes of the Church, my mom and father are still married.
However, the document reminds people that there are other types of blessings. These are not liturgical or sacraments.
There are numerous occasions in the Bible when God and Jesus blessed people. Who did Jesus walk with in the Gospels? The sinners, the poor, and those down on their luck.
Fiducia Supplicans reiterates that those who seek out blessings show “himself to be in need of God’s saving presence in his life and one who asks for a blessing from the Church recognizes the latter as a sacrament of the salvation that God offers.”
Those who ask for a blessing acknowledge “that the life of the Church springs from the womb of God’s mercy and helps us to move forward, to live better, and to respond to the Lord’s will.”
In other words, the priest can bless the individuals within the union to bring them closer to God.
It reminds me of the priest blessing me at Communion before I could take Communion. You walk to the front with others, cross your arms across your chest, and the priest knows to bless you instead of giving you Communion. They do the same with children before they receive their First Communion.
Those blessings are to bring you closer to God and the Church, much like the blessings placed upon the individuals in the unions.
The post on X from the AP writer invoked a portion of paragraph 25. But if you read what I wrote or, even better, read Fiducia Supplicans, then you know the paragraph is about the individual, not the union:
25. The Church, moreover, must shy away from resting its pastoral praxis on the fixed nature of certain doctrinal or disciplinary schemes, especially when they lead to “a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying.”[16] Thus, when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it. For, those seeking a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection.
The words “those” and “people” have been twisted by journalists and the left even though, in this case, the words mean exactly what is written in the dictionary. It has everything to do with the person, not unions or those in irregular situations.
Also, to ever imply that the Catholic Church only welcomes individuals with a clean slate is wrong, cruel, and insulting. Again, Jesus sought out, walked, and dined with the sinners, the poor, and the weak because those people needed Him the most. The Church has a beautiful prison ministry because those people need Jesus and His love.
It is not a big deal when Pope Francis dines with transgender people, gay people, etc. It’s what Jesus would have done. Loving people does not mean you approve of their lifestyle or choices.
Fiducia Supplicans continues to stress that any blessing cannot resemble marriage blessings and is for individuals. In the section “Blessings of Couples in Irregular Situations and of Couples of the Same Sex,” the wording does not mention unions or couples. It’s all about the individuals in the relationship:
31. Within the horizon outlined here appears the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex, the form of which should not be fixed ritually by ecclesial authorities to avoid producing confusion with the blessing proper to the Sacrament of Marriage. In such cases, a blessing may be imparted that not only has an ascending value but also involves the invocation of a blessing that descends from God upon those who—recognizing themselves to be destitute and in need of his help—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. These forms of blessing express a supplication that God may grant those aids that come from the impulses of his Spirit—what classical theology calls “actual grace”—so that human relationships may mature and grow in fidelity to the Gospel, that they may be freed from their imperfections and frailties, and that they may express themselves in the ever-increasing dimension of the divine love.
The following paragraph reminds the world that the Church welcomes people “who approach God with humble hearts, accompanying them with those spiritual aids that enable everyone to understand and realize God’s will fully in their existence.”
I mean, it’s not hard to understand:
33. This is a blessing that, although not included in any liturgical rite,[23] unites intercessory prayer with the invocation of God’s help by those who humbly turn to him. God never turns away anyone who approaches him! Ultimately, a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God. The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live. It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered.
In conclusion, the Catholic Church does not bless same-sex unions or irregular situations. The priests will bless the individuals to bring them closer to God and the Church.
Marriage is only between one man and one woman.
The Catholic Church welcomes everyone. However, you cannot partake in any sacrament if you are not Catholic. (With marriage, one person has to be a Catholic in good standing with the Church.)
*UPDATE: Ed Morrissey included the media’s skewing of the document and language. “Unions” to “couples.” Language is important! He also included examples of “irregular situations,” such as living together before marriage.
Ed also included a response from Francis Rocca about why the Vatican published the document because I know Catholics wonder why now?! Ah, yes. The rebels in Germany!
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