Released on December 18 under the title Fiducia Supplicans, the declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) allowing for non-liturgical blessings of couples of the same sex or in irregular situations led to expected divisions in the Catholic Church. A number of bishops sought to issue clarifications in answer to local reactions—but positions varied considerably. On the one hand, the Archbishop of Salzburg, Franz Lackner (head of the Austrian bishops’ conference), expressed “joy” at the recognition that “love, loyalty, and even hardship are shared” among couples in irregular situations, and Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai described such blessings as “natural” in Indian culture. In contrast, bishops in Malawi and Zambia stated that the blessings allowed by the declaration would not be permitted or implemented in their respective countries (The Tablet, December 26), while Hungarian bishops instructed priests to avoid blessing couples of the same sex or in irregular situations. Fiducia Supplicans claims to remain “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,” and reminds Catholics that “the Church has always considered only those sexual relations that are lived out within marriage to be morally licit.” But a pastoral approach allows for blessings to everyone outside of a liturgical context, and this includes “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…”
Lucas Ninna/Getty Images (source: Eurekastreet).
While criticism from conservative corners already very critical of Pope Francis was to be expected, reactions from African bishops indicate the opening of a potential dividing line on ethical issues that is reminiscent of what took place in the Anglican Communion. African bishops are not unanimous, however, with some putting forward opposition to homosexuality and others commenting that nothing has changed in the Catholic doctrine of marriage, since it is people who are blessed, not their union. It remains to be seen if the call of Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), for a single statement of clarification by the African church will be followed. On the other hand, the DDF’s declaration is unlikely to stop those who, in countries such as Germany, are pressing for a ritualized blessing of same-sex couples. The declaration might also be an attempt to navigate a middle way. Gavin Ashenden, a former Anglican priest and bishop who is now a Catholic layman, writes that the Vatican “has set out to appear to change the Church’s teaching without in fact changing it. The distinction is achieved by changing the practice but not the principle.” He attributes the repudiation by a number of bishops to “an instinctive reflex for reality within the Church that may resist the imposition of what appears to be heteropraxis and alternative actions” (The Catholic Herald, Dec. 21).
With officials like Kenyan bishop Paul Kariuki Njiru issuing statements that Fiducia Supplicans “should be rejected in totality” (Kenya News Agency, December 28) while others attempt to adjust pastoral practices (by, for example, blessing members of homosexual couples separately, as individuals, and not as couples), it seems that the new document may increase fragmentation within the Roman Catholic Church and create new fault lines. For now, faced with the wave of reactions, the prefect of the DDF, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, has stated that “it’s proper for each local bishop to make that discernment in his diocese,” taking local circumstances into account (National Catholic Register, Dec. 27). But the broad media coverage given to church progressives, such as the Jesuit writer and activist James Martin, who took to Twitter to invite members of the community to receive blessings, suggests that the situation will open up a new front in the culture wars in Catholicism.
(Full text of Fiducia Supplicans on Vatican website: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20231218_fiducia-supplicans_en.html)
