(CP) Pope Francis is accusing those against the Vatican’s declaration allowing priests to bless same-sex couples of hypocrisy because the Holy See continues to face blowback over that call.
The pontiff spoke with the Italian weekly magazine Credere for an interview that can be published within the Feb. 8 issue of the periodical. Vatican News reported on a few of Francis’ remarks within the interview ahead of its publication Wednesday.
The Dec. 18 declaration “Fiducia Supplicans,” issued by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, has resulted in numerous pushback inside Catholic circles and Francis addressed it in his interview with Credere. The document permits pastoral blessings of “same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.”
The pope responded to essentially the most common criticisms of Fiducia Supplicans that it blesses homosexual behavior and homosexual relationships in contradiction to Catholic Church teaching. “I don’t bless a ‘homosexual marriage’; I bless two individuals who love one another, and I also ask them to hope for me,” he said.
“Always in confessions, when these situations arrive — homosexual people, remarried people — I all the time pray and bless,” he added. “The blessing is just not to be denied to anyone. Everyone, everyone. Mind you, I’m talking about people: those that are able to receiving baptism.”
After identifying “the gravest sins” as “those who disguise themselves with a more ‘angelic’ appearance,” he lamented that “nobody is scandalized if I give a blessing to an entrepreneur who perhaps exploits people: and it is a very serious sin.” He suggested that however, people “are scandalized if I give it to a homosexual.”
“This is hypocrisy!” he proclaimed. “We must all respect one another. Everyone! The heart of the document is welcome.”
The interview with Credere constitutes one among several occasions by which the Vatican and/or Pope Francis have defended Fiducia Supplicans either directly or not directly. In remarks three days after the Vatican published the declaration, Francis advised Vatican officials to “remain vigilant against rigid ideological positions that always, under the guise of fine intentions, separate us from reality and forestall us from moving forward.”
Two weeks after Fiducia Supplicans was published, the Vatican’s Prefect for the Doctrine of the Congregation of the Faith Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez issued a statement clarifying that the “non-ritualized” type of a blessing “doesn’t intend to justify anything that is just not morally acceptable.” He also asserted that the blessing constitutes neither an “approval” nor a wedding but reasonably “a response of a pastor towards two individuals who ask for God’s help.”
Speaking on the plenary session for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith late last month, Francis attempted to assuage concerns in regards to the document by proclaiming “these blessings, outside of any liturgical context and form, don’t demand moral perfection so as to be received.” He also insisted that “one doesn’t bless the union, but simply the individuals who have required it together,” summarizing the blessings as designed for “Not the union, however the people.”
The belief that Fiducia Supplicans runs afoul of Catholic Church teaching has led to calls for the resignation of each Francis and Fernandez. A letter first published last week by Catholic pastors, clergy, scholars, professors and doctors called on Francis to withdraw the document.
While 92 individuals signed the letter on the time of its initial publication, more signatories are expected. “Qualified individuals” can provide their “name, qualifications, position and site” to filialappeal@gmail.com by Feb. 15 to make sure placement on an updated list of signatories slated for release on Feb. 17.
Although Fiducia Supplicans has generated backlash from conservative Catholics, others have praised it as a “step forward” that’s “in keeping not only with Pope Francis’s desire to accompany people pastorally but Jesus’s desire to be present to all individuals who desire grace and support.” Meanwhile, pro-life activist and practicing Catholic Lila Rose has pushed back on the concept that “Fiducia Supplicans” amounts to a latest development.
“The Pope has not approved blessings for same-sex sexual relationships,” she stated in an X post the day after Fiducia Supplicans was published. Lamenting that “Those running headlines saying as much are either confused themselves or intentionally misleading others to cause confusion,” she noted that “blessings have all the time been freely given to any person – and never to sin.”
