VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has suggested there may be a way to bless same-sex unions, responding to five conservative cardinals who challenged him to reaffirm the church’s teaching on homosexuality ahead of a major meeting where LGBTQ+ Catholics are on the agenda.
The Vatican on Monday published a letter Francis wrote to the cardinals on July 11 after receiving a list of five questions, or “dubia,” from them the day before.
In it, Francis suggests that such blessings can be learned if they do not confuse the blessing with sacramental marriage.
New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics, said the letter “significantly advances” efforts to make LGBTQ+ Catholics welcome in the church and is “a big straw towards breaking the camel’s back” in their marginalization.
The Vatican maintains that marriage is an indissoluble union between a man and a woman.
As a result, it has long opposed gay marriage.
But Francis has also voiced support for civil laws that give legal benefits to same-sex couples, and Catholic priests in some parts of Europe have approved same-sex unions without Vatican condemnation.
Francis’ response to the cardinal, however, marked a reversal from the Vatican’s current official position.
In a 2021 explanatory note, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said categorically that the church cannot bless gay unions because “God cannot bless sin.”
In his new letter, Francis reiterated that marriage is the union between a man and a woman.
But answering the cardinal’s question about homosexual union and blessing, he said “pastoral charity” requires patience and understanding and that regardless, the priest cannot be a judge “who only denies, rejects and excludes.”
Cardinal Joseph Zen, an outspoken opponent of Beijing and the Vatican’s attempts to unify, presided over a vigil Mass for Bishop Michael Yeung in Hong Kong on Thursday, Jan. 10. 2019.AP
“For this reason, pastoral wisdom must adequately distinguish whether there is a form of blessing, requested by one or more people, that does not convey the wrong concept of marriage,” he wrote. “Because when a prayer is asked, it expresses a request for help from God, a request to be able to live better, trust in the father who can help us live better.”
He states that there are situations that are objectively “morally unacceptable.” But he said the same “pastoral charity” requires people to be treated as sinners who may not be entirely to blame for their situation.
Francis added that there is no need for a diocesan or bishops’ conference to turn such pastoral charity into a fixed norm or protocol, saying the issue can be dealt with on a case-by-case basis “because the life of the church runs on channels outside the norm. .”
Cardinal Raymond Burke applauds during a press conference in the Italian Senate, in Rome. Five conservative cardinals are challenging Pope Francis to reaffirm Catholic teaching on homosexuality and the ordination of women. AP
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the Ministry of New Ways, welcomed the pope’s openness.
“”The allowance for pastoral ministers to bless same-sex couples implies that the church indeed recognizes that holy love can exist between same-sex couples, and that this couple’s love reflects God’s love,” he said in a statement. “The recognition, although not entirely as desired by LGBTQ+ Catholics, is a huge step towards fuller and more comprehensive equality.”
The five cardinals, all conservative prelates from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, have challenged Francis to affirm the church’s teaching on gays, the ordination of women, papal authority and other issues in their letter.
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, left, speaks with Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.AP
They published the material two days before the start of a big three-week synod, or meeting, at the Vatican where LGBTQ+ Catholics and their place in the church are on the agenda.
The signatories are some of Francis’ most vocal critics, all retired and the more doctrinaire generation of cardinals appointed by St. John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI.
They are Cardinal Walter Brandmueller of Germany, a former Vatican historian; Raymond Burke of the United States, whom Francis fired as head of the Vatican’s supreme court; Juan Sandoval of Mexico, retired archbishop of Guadalajara; Robert Sarah of Guinea, retired head of the Vatican liturgical office; and Joseph Zen, the retired archbishop of Hong Kong.
Pope Francis, flanked by children from five continents, spoke from his studio window to the faithful gathered for the traditional Sunday afternoon blessing in St. Peter on Oct. 1.
Brandmueller and Burke were among the four signatories of a previous round of “dubia” to Francis in 2016 following his controversial opening to allow divorced and civilly remarried couples to receive Communion.
Later, the cardinals worried that Francis’ position violated the church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. Francis never answered their questions, and two of their co-signers later died.
Francis answered this time.
The cardinals did not publish his answer, but they apparently found it so unsatisfactory that they formulated their five questions, handed them back to him and asked him to answer yes or no.
When he did not, the cardinals decided to make a general text and issue a “notification” warning to the faithful.
The Vatican’s doctrinal office published its response to them a few hours later, although it did so without his introduction in which he urged the cardinals not to fear the synod.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
