The Vatican decision, approved by Francis and known on December 18, according to which blessings were authorized for same-sex couples and new unions of people who were previously married (“irregular” for the Church) was, in general, well received in the LGTBQ+ community, but began to generate opposition and rejection from conservative sectors of the Catholic Churchbishops and even some episcopal conferences.
The declaration ”Begging for confidence” issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the signature of the prefect (highest authority), Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and with the support of Pope Jorge Bergoglio, it was cautious in clarifying that the decision is adopted “without validating officially your status nor alter in any way the perennial teaching of the Church on marriage.”
On this basis, several bishops and episcopal conferences reacted positively facing the decision. Georg Bätzing, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Conference of Germany, thanked on December 18 for the “pastoral perspective” of the Vatican declaration and said that he “welcomed” the document. Along the same lines, the president of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth of the bishops of USABishop Robert Barron stated on December 21 that the document “in no way calls for a change in the Church’s teachings on marriage and sexuality.”
The president of the Argentine episcopate, Bishop Oscar Ojeamaintained that “the Pope does theology from a pastoral standpoint, which is why sometimes it is difficult for some minds to understand this,” and insisted on pointing out that the declaration on blessings for same-sex couples “has to do with a rediscovery and revalue the meaning” of them.
However, both the warnings from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the demonstrations in favor of the measure They were not enough for the conservative sectors of Catholicism who did not take long to express their concern..
In an interview given to a Uruguayan media, the cardinal Daniel Sturla, archbishop of Montevideo, said that it is a “controversial” issue and admitted that it generates contradictions within Catholicism. He assured that the Vatican document “creates confusion.” “What I believe,” the Uruguayan archbishop stressed, “is that people can be blessed, but couples as such, as couples, cannot.” And regarding homosexual couples, he said that “if what one wants is to get closer to people and make homosexuals feel part of the Church, that’s fine with me. Because the Church is for everyone. But unions that the church itself says are not in accordance with God’s plan cannot be blessed.”
The Episcopal Conference of Zambia said on December 20 that the Vatican document should “be taken for further reflection and not for implementation in Zambia“. In Malawithe episcopal conference directly established that in that country ““No blessings of any kind are permitted for same-sex unions.”
The spokesperson for the Polish Catholic hierarchypriest Leszek Gesiak, said that blessings can be “given to individual people with homosexual inclinations,” but only to those who “manifest the will to live in fidelity to what is revealed” and are “individuals who totally abstain from sexual relations.” .
Los Ukrainian Catholic bishops of the Latin rite drew attention to the risk of “ambiguous wording that provokes divergent interpretations among the faithful”, pointing out in turn that “the Gospel calls sinners to conversion, and without a call to abandon the sinful life of gay couples, the blessing may seem like an endorsement.
Hungarian Catholic bishops They stated that while it is possible to bless people regardless of their sexuality, “we should always avoid giving a common blessing to couples living together in a purely conjugal relationship, not an ecclesiastically valid marriage or same-sex relationship.”
Given the reactions contrary to the provisions of “Begging for confidence“Cardinal Fernandez decided to announce, on January 4, a statement with clarifications, in which, among other issues, he reiterates that the church’s teaching on marriage and sexuality remains unchanged. As specified, “the true novelty” of the document “is not the possibility of blessing irregular couples,” but “the invitation to distinguish between two different forms of blessing: ‘liturgical or ritualized’ and ‘spontaneous or pastoral’.” Without failing to point out that “prudence and attention to the ecclesial context and local culture could allow different modalities of applicationbut not a total or definitive denial of this path proposed to priests”, And lowering the tone of the debates, Cardinal Fernández, warns that the blessings referred to, of a “pastoral” type, “should not be carried out in a prominent place in the temple or in front of the altar”, they must be “very brief” and with the purpose of “asking the Lord for peace, health and other goods for those two people who ask for it.”
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