A pair of hands are shown with the sky as a background in this staged photo (Photo supplied)
By Nuno da Silva Gonçalves SJ, La Civiltà Cattolica
Feb 5 2023
THE Declaration Fiducia Supplicans on the pastoral meaning of blessings was published with the approval of Pope Francis by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on Dec 18, 2023. The document, by opening up the possibility of blessing same-sex couples, has provoked various reactions and interpretations. We will first try to present the content of the Declaration, which, in the meantime, has been the subject of a special press release from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on its reception. Following this, we will offer a reflection on the pastoral issues raised.
The contents of the Declaration
In his presentation at the beginning of the document, Cardinal Víctor Fernández reiterates that the work of the Dicastery over which he presides “must foster, along with an understanding of the Church’s perennial doctrine, the reception of the Holy Father’s teaching.” He next stresses that the Declaration “remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church on marriage, ruling out any type of liturgical rite or blessing similar to a liturgical rite that could create confusion.”
Instead, the purpose of the document is “to offer a specific and innovative contribution to the pastoral meaning of blessings,” with the aim of “permitting a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings, which is closely linked to a liturgical perspective.” Then the presentation acknowledges that “such theological reflection, based on the pastoral vision of Pope Francis, implies a real development from what has been said about blessings in the Magisterium and the official texts of the Church,” which is why the text has taken the form of a Declaration. In this context of “real development,” the document admits “the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.”
The Introduction, in presenting the context in which the reflection that led to the drafting of the document developed, recalls the Responsum ad dubium, published on Feb 22, 2021, by the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which states that the Church does not have the power to bless unions between persons of the same sex. It also recalls Pope Francis’ response to the second of the five questions posed by two cardinals, published on Sep 25, 2023. There, the pope had stated that “the Church has a very clear understanding of marriage: it is an exclusive, stable and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, open by its nature to the generation of children.
Only this type of union does the Church call a ‘marriage’,” so “for this reason, the Church avoids any type of rite or sacramental form that might contradict this position and imply that something that is not marriage is being recognized as marriage.” Pope Francis appeals, however, to “pastoral charity,” which must permeate all decisions and attitudes, and to “pastoral prudence.” It “must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons, that do not convey an erroneous understanding of marriage. When one asks for a blessing, one is petitioning for God’s assistance, a desire to live better, and confidence in a Father who can help us live better.”
With the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith takes up what Pope Francis suggested, believing that it is opportune “to explore this issue further, especially in its pastoral implications,” avoiding the danger of creating confusion “between what constitutes marriage – the ‘exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children’ – and what does not follow this pattern. This distinction is grounded in the perennial Catholic doctrine of marriage. It is only in this context that sexual relations find their natural, proper and fully human meaning. The Church’s doctrine on this point remains firm.”
The central part of the Declaration, biblical-theological in nature, examines the value of different blessings, accepting Pope Francis’ invitation to broaden and enrich their meaning. It starts with the liturgical significance of the rites of blessing, stating that, “From a strictly liturgical point of view, a blessing requires that what is blessed be conformed to God’s will, as expressed in the teachings of the Church.” “For this reason, since the Church has always considered only sexual relations within marriage to be morally licit, the Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when that would somehow offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice.”
Having reaffirmed these points, the Declaration next outlines “a broader understanding of blessings,” with the aim of asserting that “the same moral conditions for a simple blessing should apply as those that are called for in the reception of the sacraments. Indeed, there is a danger that a pastoral gesture that is so popular and widespread will be subjected to too many preconditions, which, under the claim of control, could tend to overshadow the unconditional power of God’s love that forms the basis for the act of blessing.”
Reviewing the meaning of blessings in Sacred Scripture, the Document recalls, almost as in a summary, the moment of the Ascension in which “the last image of Jesus on earth is that of his hands being raised in the act of blessing” (cf. Luke 24:50-51), and then concludes: “In his mystery of love, through Christ, God communicates to his Church the power to bless. Granted by God to human beings and bestowed by them on their neighbors, the blessing is transformed into an act of inclusion, solidarity and peacemaking. It is a positive message of comfort, care and encouragement. The blessing expresses God’s merciful embrace and the Church’s role as mother, which invites the faithful to have the same feelings as God toward their brothers and sisters.”
Building on the definition just mentioned, the Declaration thus presents a new theological-pastoral understanding of blessings. This understanding is based on the conviction that the request for a blessing implies knowing oneself “in need of God’s saving presence in one’s life,” recognizing the Church “as a sacrament of the salvation that God offers,” whereby “to seek a blessing in the Church is to acknowledge that the life of the Church springs from the womb of God’s mercy and helps us to move forward, to live better, and to respond to the Lord’s will.”
A request for a blessing must, consequently, be “valued, accompanied and received with gratitude,” as the requesting persons manifest “their sincere openness to transcendence, the confidence of their hearts showing that they do not trust in their own strength alone, that they need God, and they desire to break out of the narrow confines of this world, enclosed in its limitations.” Under these conditions, “pastoral prudence and wisdom – avoiding all grave forms of scandal and confusion among the faithful – may suggest that the ordained minister join in the prayer of those persons who, although in a union that cannot be compared in any way to a marriage, desire to entrust themselves to the Lord and his mercy, to invoke his help, and to be guided to a greater understanding of his plan of love and of truth.”
It is with these assumptions in mind that the Declaration places “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 causing confusion with the blessing proper to the Sacrament of Marriage.” It is a matter of invoking God’s help “upon those who – recognizing themselves to be destitute and in need of his help – do not claim a legitimation of their own status, but who beg that all that is true, good and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.”
The blessing would consist, then, in a supplication to God to grant aid “so that human relationships may mature and grow in fidelity to the Gospel, that they may be freed from their imperfections and frailties, and that they may express themselves in the ever-increasing dimension of the divine love.” With such a blessing, “the Church welcomes all who approach God with humble hearts, accompanying them with those spiritual aids that enable everyone to understand and realize God’s will fully in their existence.” In other words, “This is a blessing that, although not included in any liturgical rite, unites intercessory prayer with the invocation of God’s help by those who humbly turn to him.” The one imparting the blessing, therefore, “does not claim to sanction or legitimize anything.”
Instead, in a brief prayer preceding this blessing, the ordained minister could ask that “the individuals have peace, health, a spirit of patience, dialogue and mutual assistance – but also God’s light and strength to be able to fulfill his will completely.” It is reiterated, as well, that such a blessing “should never be imparted in concurrence with the ceremonies of a civil union, and not even in connection with them. Nor can it be performed with clothing, gestures or words that are proper to a wedding. The same applies when the blessing is requested by a same-sex couple.”
Finally, it is again insisted that “through these blessings that are given not through the ritual forms proper to the liturgy but as an expression of the Church’s maternal heart – similar to those that emanate from popular piety – there is no intention to legitimize anything, but rather to open their lives 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 faithfulness.” That is, “any blessing will be an opportunity for a renewed proclamation of the kerygma, an invitation to draw ever closer to the love of Christ.”
In a final caveat, which we may infer comes from an awareness of the document’s predictable impact, it is anticipated, with regard to blessings of same-sex couples, that what has been said is considered “sufficient to guide the prudent and paternal discernment of ordained ministers in this regard.”
The receipt of the Declaration and clarifications from the Dicastery
The Declaration has been widely reported in the media and has also been the subject of communiqués by various bishops’ conferences and individual bishops. Generally, reactions and comments have centered on the possibility of blessing same-sex couples and, much less, on the pastoral attitude toward other couples in an irregular situation, an issue that has been the subject of other documents, particularly Pope Francis’ 2016 Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia.
In many examples of explicit acceptance of the Declaration, it was recalled that the Church’s doctrine on marriage and sexuality has not changed, as is reiterated several times in the document itself. Other reactions see the content of the Declaration as a first step in the right direction, and several Catholic homosexual groups have expressed appreciation. Finally, there was also no shortage of reactions, even at the level of individual bishops’ conferences, in which the conviction was expressed that they could not apply what the Declaration permitted because it would be an occasion of potential confusion and scandal among the faithful. This was the tenor of the letter written by Cardinal Ambongo Besungu, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, while still stressing the freedom of choice of each bishop in his own diocese and their unfailing attachment to the successor of Peter.
The reception of the Declaration is, therefore, very diverse, and we can imagine that debates and study will continue into the future. From a theological point of view, it will probably be necessary to further explore the meaning of the distinction between liturgical blessings with a more formal ritual and juridical character, and spontaneous or informal blessings, considered close to popular piety. The Declaration considers the latter as a particular “expression of the Church’s maternal heart,” but, of course, it does not exclude the position that liturgical blessings are an expression of God’s benevolence, grace and providence manifesting themselves in all the life situations of His children, as one finds by turning the pages of the Book of Blessings. Moreover, every blessing, whether formal or informal, is always a proclamation of the Gospel and an invitation to conversion, since being face to face with Christ is a transforming encounter.
Faced with the diversity of reactions to the document and the debate it provoked, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a special press release on Jan 4, 2024, regarding the reception of Fiducia Supplicans. The text reiterated the essential points of the Declaration and made some clarifications. In the communiqué, signed by the Prefect of the Dicastery, Cardinal Víctor Fernández, and the Secretary for the Doctrinal Section, Monsignor Armando Matteo, the clarity and fidelity of the document to the Church’s doctrine on marriage and sexuality is stressed.
Regarding practical reception, it acknowledged that documents such as Fiducia Supplicans, “in their practical aspects, may require more or less time for their application depending on local contexts and the discernment of each diocesan bishop within his diocese. In some places no difficulties arise for their immediate application, while in others there is a need not to introduce changes, before taking the time necessary for reading and interpretation.” In other words, a reminder is given that “each local bishop, by virtue of his own ministry, always has the power of discernment in loco, that is, in that particular place that he knows better than others because it is his own flock.” For this reason, the
Dicastery stresses that “prudence and attention to the ecclesial context and to the local culture could allow for different ways of application, but not a total or definitive denial of this path that is proposed to priests.” It is also recognized that “in several countries there are strong cultural and even legal issues that require time and pastoral strategies that go beyond the short term.” This will be the case in countries where homosexuality is to varying degrees prohibited and criminalized. The Dicastery states that in these cases, “apart from the question of blessings, there exists a great and wide-ranging pastoral responsibility that includes training, the defense of human dignity, the teaching of the Social Doctrine of the Church and various strategies that do not admit of a rushed response.”
With regard to the distinction between two different forms of blessings, those that are “liturgical or ritualized” and those that are “spontaneous or pastoral,” which is considered the real novelty of the document, the press release reiterates that the latter “are not a consecration of the person or couple who receives them; they are not a justification of all their actions, they are not a ratification of the life they lead” and they do not claim “to justify something that is not morally acceptable.” They are, yes, expressing pastoral closeness which is different from ratifying a way of life. To avoid confusion, it is made clear in the press release that such blessings should not take place “in a prominent place within a sacred building, or in front of an altar.”
Pastoral issues raised
At the heart of the Declaration, then, is pastoral concern. With what gestures can ordained ministers manifest to the faithful, in whatever situation they find themselves, welcome and closeness, inviting them, at the same time, to the apparent clash of their own values with the demands of the Gospel? How can ordained ministers be a sign of God’s presence in the case of couples in an irregular situation or formed by persons of the same sex, without contradicting the Church’s teaching on marriage and sexuality? To these questions, which arise from the pastoral experience of many ordained ministers, the Declaration responds, offering the possibility of imparting, in certain circumstances, a blessing that is not an approval of a situation that does not conform to the Gospel, but rather an invitation to humbly draw near to Christ, without placing limits on the transforming action of his grace.
We can admit that, in certain situations and contexts, it may be difficult to avoid scandal or confusion, that the distinction between gestures of welcome and approval of an irregular situation may not be easy. Therefore, the ordained minister will not be able to avoid, when faced with a request for a blessing, assessing whether there are the minimum conditions to be able to impart it: in particular, humility and openness to the truth announced by Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church. Likewise, it must be verified that the request for a blessing is not a claim or a request for approval of a relationship. It should be considered, on the other hand, that acceptance is never theoretical and cannot occur without real gestures.
In the case of persons with homosexual tendencies, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, while considering such a tendency “objectively disordered,” states that these persons should be welcomed “with respect, compassion and sensitivity.” What is reiterated in the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans is that, in addition to active participation in the Christian community, ordained ministers will be able to manifest such “respect, compassion and sensitivity” in the case of same-sex couples by means of the kind of blessing envisioned by the document, taking into account the pastoral prudence and the sensitivity of their own community. One might add that blessing is a possibility, not an obligation. There is an obligation to welcome, to accompany, to help people take steps, however small, in the direction of the truth of the Gospel.
Thus, the key to understanding the Declaration seems to be the desire to accompany all people and to be mediators of God’s grace that calls everyone to a new life. This requires availability, time and humility. For this new life to be manifested, it will be essential for the ordained minister and the couple to humbly place themselves before God, asking for God’s light and guidance. With this as the starting point, we believe that, moving away from manipulation, as well as vindictive and identity-based judgments, the maternal attitude of the Church will be able to foster renewed and transformed life, the proper life of those who entrust themselves to the Lord and his mercy. – La Civiltà Cattolica
