Angelus News | January 12, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 1

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández,
Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine
of the Faith
These kinds of blessings are simple
pastoral channels that help to express
people’s faith, even if those people are
great sinners.
Therefore, by giving this blessing to
two people who spontaneously come
forward to request it, one can legitimately
ask God to grant them health,
peace, prosperity — the things that we
all ask for and that a sinner can also
ask for.
At the same time, since one can think
that in the daily lives of these two
persons, not everything is sin, one can
therefore pray for them [to receive] a
spirit of dialogue, patience, and mutual
help.
But the declaration also mentions a
request for help from the Holy Spirit
so that this relationship, which is often
unknown to the priest, may be purified
of everything that does not respond to
the Gospel and the will of God, and
may mature along the lines of God’s
plan.
Obviously, when there is a text signed
by the pope, in order to interpret it
broadly the bishops must first study
it in-depth and without haste, and
allow themselves to be enlightened
and enriched by that text. Therefore,
prudence and attention to local culture
could admit different ways of application,
but not a total denial of this step
being asked of priests.
United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops
The declaration … articulated a distinction
between liturgical (sacramental)
blessings, and pastoral blessings,
which may be given to persons who
desire God’s loving grace in their lives.
The Church’s teaching on marriage
has not changed, and this declaration
affirms that, while also making an effort
to accompany people through the
imparting of pastoral blessings because
each of us needs God’s healing love
and mercy in our lives.
A man walks outside the Cathedral of St. Paul in 2013
in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Homosexual unions are not
recognized or allowed in most African countries, and
many Catholic bishops on the continent have said
that any form of blessings involving such couples will
not be implemented in their countries or dioceses. |
CNS/THIERRY GOUEGNON, REUTERS
Father James Martin, SJ,
Editor-at-Large, America Magazine
You may hear from some quarters that
“nothing has changed.” But a great
deal has in fact changed. … Today,
with some limitations, I can perform a
public blessing of a same-sex couple.
Yesterday, I could not.
Some LGBTQ people may be disappointed
that this declaration doesn’t go
as far as they might hope — that is, allowing
same-sex couples to be married
sacramentally.
As for me, I welcome this new declaration
and see it as a much-needed
pastoral response to Catholic same-sex
couples in loving, committed, and
self-sacrificing relationships who desire
God’s presence and help. And as a
priest I look forward to blessing samesex
couples, and sharing with them the
graces that God desires for everyone,
something I’ve waited years to do.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect of
the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, 2012-2017
According to the Catholic faith, the
pope and the bishops can set certain
pastoral accents and creatively relate
the truth of Revelation to the new
challenges of each age … but these
innovations cannot go beyond what
was revealed to them once and for all
by the apostles as the word of God.
In fact, there are no biblical texts or
texts of the Fathers and Doctors of the
Church or previous documents of the
magisterium to support the conclusions
of [the declaration]. Moreover,
what we see is not a development but a
doctrinal leap.
In order to accept the blessing of situations
that are contrary to the Gospel,
the [declaration] proposes an original
solution: to broaden the concept of
a blessing. … That is, a new concept
of blessing is needed, one that goes
beyond sacramental blessings in order
to accompany pastorally the journey
of those who live in sin. … Notice
that not only sinful persons are blessed
here, but that by blessing the couple,
it is the sinful relationship itself that is
blessed.
The difficulty of blessing a union or
couple is especially evident in the case
of homosexuality. For in the Bible, a
blessing has to do with the order that
God has created and that he has declared
to be good. This order is based
on the sexual difference of male and
female, called to be one flesh. Blessing
a reality that is contrary to creation is
not only impossible, it is blasphemy. …
Priests should proclaim God’s love
and goodness to all people and also
help sinners and those who are weak
and have difficulty in conversion with
counsel and prayer. This is very different
from pointing out to them with
self-invented but misleading signs and
12 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024