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

Cardinal Víctor Manuel
Fernández, prefect of the
Dicastery for the Doctrine
of the Faith, participates in
the first working session of
the assembly of the Synod of
Bishops in the Vatican’s Paul VI
Audience Hall Oct. 4, 2023. |
CNS/LOLA GOMEZ
EXPLAINING TO DO
The Vatican spent the holidays clarifying its clarification on blessings for
those in ‘irregular’ relationships. But will anything actually change?
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
ROME — During the peak of
the Watergate scandal in the
early 1970s, President Richard
Nixon became infamous for prefacing
his rambling efforts at self-defense
with the line, “Let me make one thing
perfectly clear.”
Observers soon learned that when
those words passed Nixon’s lips, whatever
followed might be many things,
but clarity was unlikely to be among
them.
The memory comes to mind in light
of the various efforts at clarification
being issued these days by Argentine
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández,
Pope Francis’ doctrinal czar, regarding
the Dec. 18 declaration Fiducia
Supplicans (“Supplicating Trust”),
authorizing Catholic priests to offer
nonliturgical blessings of same-sex
couples.
The latest such attempt to clear
things up came Jan. 4, in the form of
a press release from Fernández and
his top deputy, Italian Msgr. Armando
Matteo, regarding reception of the
declaration. Perhaps the first thing to
note is that at 2,200 words, the press
release is half as long as the document
it seeks to clarify — mathematically,
anyway, suggesting that after a mere
fortnight’s frenzied reaction, virtually
every other word in the original text
needed some sort of explanation.
Certainly, it’s hard to remember the
20 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024