Vatican rules on blessings for "same-sex and irregular couples"On January 4, just 17 days after the publication by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Declaration Fiducia supplicansThe same Dicastery has issued a press release "to help clarify the reception" of that Declaration.
Something quite surprising, but understandable considering that numerous bishops' conferences (more than twenty) and many bishops and cardinals have expressed from perplexity to outright rejection of the proposal to bless irregular or same-sex couples, although the Declaration clearly states that these blessings (called "pastoral") are to be done without liturgical rite, avoiding that they can be confused with the priestly blessing of a wedding, and "without officially validating their status nor alter in any way the perennial teaching of the Church on Marriage" (presentation of "Fiducia supplicans").
News and confusion
Apart from the novelty constituted by the blessing of same-sex couples - to which I will return shortly - another aspect that may have contributed to a certain tension among broad sectors of the episcopate is the fact that, although the Declaration does not impose these blessings, but always speaks only of "possibility", it is affirmed that the Church's closeness to every situation in which God's help is requested through a simple blessing should not be "prevented or forbidden" ("Fiducia supplicans", 38).
The Note qualifies this statement somewhat, recognizing that "prudence and attention to the ecclesial context and local culture could admit various modes of application". However, the Note goes on to emphasize what the Declaration indicates: there can be "various modes of application, but not a total or definitive denial of this step that is being proposed to priests" (note 2).
These critical voices may come as a surprise, considering that this is a text in which the pastoral yearning of Pope Francis, his lively desire to welcome and accompany every person or couple, showing them the maternal face of the Church with that "pastoral gesture, so dear and widespread" ("Fiducia supplicans", 12) proper to blessings, is clearly breathed. The Church also wants to show her closeness to the faithful in these difficult situations, always offering them consolation and encouragement, inviting them "to draw ever closer to the love of Christ" ("Fiducia supplicans", 44), in the certainty that God abandons no one. Evidently, these intentions, which are more than praiseworthy, have not prevented the proposal to allow the blessing of irregular or same-sex couples from provoking perplexity or rejection. The point that is causing the most difficulties has been the novelty of the blessing of homosexual couples.
In this regard, it should be recalled that both the Roman Ritual of 1985 and the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith itself, in a Responsum published in 2021, had clearly excluded this possibility. In fact, the Roman Ritual had demanded that in order to perform a blessing "it must not deal with things, places or contingencies contrary to the law or the spirit of the Gospel" (n. 13). Even more explicit was the prohibition pronounced in 2021 by the same Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which stated: "When a blessing is invoked on certain human relationships, it is necessary - beyond the right intention of those who participate - that what is blessed be objectively and positively ordered to receive and express grace, according to the designs of God inscribed in Creation and fully revealed by Christ the Lord. Therefore, only those realities are compatible with the essence of the blessing imparted by the Church that are in themselves ordered to serve these designs. For this reason, it is not licit to impart a blessing to relationships, or even to stable couples, which involve a sexual praxis outside marriage (that is, outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open, by itself, to the transmission of life), as is the case with unions between persons of the same sex. The presence in such relationships of positive elements, which in themselves are to be appreciated and valued, is not, however, capable of justifying them and making them the licit object of an ecclesial blessing, because such elements are at the service of a union that is not ordered to God's plan" (Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, signed by the then Prefect Cardinal Luis F. Ladaria, 22-II-2021).
Do not legitimize anything
The authors of "Fiducia supplicans" were certainly aware that the novelty of blessings to irregular or same-sex couples could give rise to a serious misunderstanding and confusion: that of interpreting the blessing as "a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extramarital sexual practice" (11). Consequently, the text specifies that the blessing considered here is a gesture that "does not intend to sanction or legitimize anything" (34) and also that it is intended "only to open one's life to God, to ask for his help to live better and also to invoke the Holy Spirit so that the values of the Gospel may be lived with greater fidelity" (40).
All this has now been reaffirmed in the Note and, in a special way, the fact that "this form of non-ritualized blessing, with the simplicity and brevity of its form, is not intended to justify something that is not morally acceptable. It is clearly not a marriage, but it is not even an 'approval' or a ratification of anything. It is only the response of a pastor to two people who ask for God's help" (5). In the following point of the Note, it is insisted again "that this type of blessing is not a ratification of the life of those who request it" and that in blessing these couples "we are not consecrating them, nor are we congratulating them, nor are we approving this type of union" (6).
The question then arises as to why the criticism and rejection of the Declaration in spite of so many clarifications.
The criticism is understandable if one takes into account that the very term "bless" means "to say good" and in common parlance means not only a plea, a request for help from God, but also an approval. It is said, for example, that an initiative has been "blessed". But to approve the union between two persons of the same sex would constitute a flagrant contradiction with the teaching of the Magisterium, contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in points 2352-2359 and 2390. I quote only the latter: "The sexual act must take place exclusively in marriage; outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and excludes from sacramental communion".
Couples, unions, individuals
The Note proposes to distinguish between "couple" and "union", in the sense of affirming that the "couple" is blessed but not their "union", pointing out that these are pastoral blessings "of irregular couples (not unions)" (2). This distinction does not seem clear, since the concept of couple necessarily includes a reference to a relationship, and not simply to two persons. Two persons without a particular relationship between them are not a couple.
The Declaration specifies that this "non-ritualized" blessing is "a simple gesture that provides an effective means of increasing trust in God in those who ask for it" (36). It also specifies that with such a blessing the ordained minister joins "the prayer of those persons who, although they are in a union that can in no way be compared to marriage, wish to entrust themselves to the Lord and to his mercy, to invoke his help, to allow themselves to be guided towards a greater understanding of his plan of love and life" (30). And again: "These forms of blessing express a plea to God to grant those helps that come from the promptings of his Spirit" (31). All this leads to consider this blessing rather as a "prayer", "invocation of God's mercy and help", or a "supplication to God". Very probably so many perplexities and controversies could have been avoided by using these terms instead of "blessing".
