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On December 18, 2023, Pope Francis approved a document entitled Fiducia Supplicans, written by his doctrine chief, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez. This document gave approval for priests and bishops to bless same-sex couples, as well those in other “irregular situations”
As a formally consecrated Catholic catechist, I will attempt to make some clarifications, as well as offer my opinions and commentary.
Fiducia Supplicans
The title of the document is Fiducia Supplicans. Most Church documents are incipit, which means that the opening words of the main text are also the title in Latin. In this case, “Fiducia supplicans” is Latin for “The supplicating trust of the faithful People of God…” They are typically organized by paragraphs or canons.
The ultimate aim of this declaration is to explain the nature and purpose of blessings. It also discusses the types, the first of which are descending, as with God showing favor to a person, place, or thing. The other is ascending, as with a human glorying God’s majesty and works, as expressed throughout the Psalms.
This document reiterates throughout the Church’s stance on marriage as being only possible between one man and one women; it does not and cannot change doctrine. Pope Francis, often seen as a progressive on LGBT matters, has even said so himself, notably when the Argentine government was moving to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010.
The blessings this document authorizes are informal and are not to resemble weddings. They may not take place during a Mass, nor during or even immediately after a civil wedding ceremony, nor even at a reception. The priest will not wear his usual wedding vestments or recite the traditional prayers of a Catholic wedding. I’ll hazard that these blessings won’t be registered with a parish as other sacraments are.
As for these so-called “irregular situations” mentioned earlier? The logical assumption is that they are male-female couples whose members are unmarried but either sexually active, living together, or are unfaithful to an existing relationship. It could also imply polygamy.
MY COMMENTARY
1) The primary mission of the Catholic Church is to save souls. Absent from this document are calls to repentance and conversion. In fact, the opposite is implied. Paragraph 43 says that “even when a person’s relationship with God is clouded by sin (emphasis mine), he can always ask for a blessing…”, which is true. However, earlier, paragraph 25 says that the Church must not base its pastoral approach “on the fixed nature of certain doctrinal or disciplinary schemes”, and that “… when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it.” Paragraphs 43 and 25 contradict each other. Knowledge of the Faith (“doctrinal or disciplinary schemes”) is entirely necessary in order to know what clouds one’s relationship with God, as well as how and why, and then make an examination of conscience (“exhaustive moral analysis”).
So even if approval of what has previously been defined as sinful is neither intended, implied, or stated, that is still essentially what has been communicated and will be received. None of this means that the Church demands moral perfection of her members, let alone those who would seek to be. She does not; we are all sinners. It is for this reason that we have the Sacrament of Confession, as well as a diverse life of rich devotions that can appeal to all personalities and temperaments and aid in all struggles of the heart, mind, and soul. There is also our devotion to the Saints, many of whom had converted from lives of sin and serve as powerful examples of the life-changing grace of Jesus Christ.
2) I realize that this may be lost on most people, but it must still be noted. This decree more than anything else reveals a gaping inconsistency, dare I say even hypocrisy with Pope Francis and his “pastoral approach”. In 2021, he placed severe restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass, which dates back at least 1,500 years and was suppressed in the 1960s following the creation of the Mass that most Catholics know today. Some have even called these restrictions cruel, incoherent, and unreasonable.
He claimed that Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 document allowing wider celebrations of the Latin Mass, and the Mass itself, was being exploited for ideological purposes and abused. To this, I ask first, if that were true, does he expect differently with Fiducia Supplicans? Second, and more importantly, why are faithfully practicing Catholics thirsting for God – who ought to be the pope’s first priority – having the law brought down on them, but relationships and lifestyles which are in public contrast to the Church being shown favor?
3) While I am all for finding ways to welcome people into (or back into) the Church, or to help those who feel ostracized and unloved to understand that God loves them and that they truly do have a place in the Church, it cannot be at the expense of truth. This, of course, doesn’t mean smacking someone in the face with fire-and-brimstone homilies or, at least at first, lengthy and detailed citations of the Bible, various catechisms and councils, and other Church documents. But neither does it mean approving of or blessing a lifestyle that runs contrary to the precepts of the Church. While it is certainly true that Jesus showed compassion and mercy towards sinners, He nevertheless also commanded them to “go and sin no more”, as with the woman caught in adultery in John 8. He met people where they were, but He did not leave them there.
There is only so much that one can do to evangelize someone. But if evangelization consists only in kindness and affirmation and downplays, or even ignores challenge, charitable admonishment, and instruction, then the soul searching for love and truth is set up for disappointment and everyone will be right back where they started. Such should especially be kept in mind in today’s age when people think that God is indifferent to everything that everyone says and does and just approves all of it. Eventually, the hard truth simply must be spoken. And if that should cause someone to leave, then they should be allowed to leave.
On a closing note, I can already hear people asking why Catholics are getting upset about this and not clerical sex abuse. If you are among them, the first person you should be asking about is Pope Francis. Not because he’s the pope and has the authority. It’s because he himself has a disturbing history of covering up sex abuse, defending predators (or their enablers), and snubbing victims. Theodore McCarrick and Marko Rupnik are good names to start with.
CONCLUSION
There is so much more that can and should be said, but that will be for another time. Cardinal Fernandez, who, for the record, wrote a book called – and I’m not making this up – “Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing”, is tripping all over himself trying to explain that this decree doesn’t actually say what it actually says. It’s pathetic, it’s scandalous, and it has created an enormous mess.
It will eventually be rescinded and condemned. I have neither the time nor the space to offer a detailed explanation on Church teaching regarding LGBT-related issues, since such was the main focus of this decree. For now, it will suffice to encourage a reading of the Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, written in 1986 by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later, Pope Benedict XVI).
You are free to believe what you want to about all I've just said. I am simply here to inform.
Published on January 7, 2024, the Feast of the Holy Family
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