Gema Segoviano (46 years old) and Ana Cabeza (63 years old) have been rowing against the current their entire lives. They live in Encinillas (Segovia), are a same-sex couple and are Christians, two characteristics with a contradictory historical relationship. They met in 2003 but had to wait two years to get married when gay marriage was still legal in Spain. Their wedding consisted of a liturgy similar to the Christian wedding in a parish south of Madrid. They were blessed in a secret way, even though the church did not allow it.
They received the blessing thanks to priests like Enric Canet (Barcelona, 66 years old), who has been secretly practicing this practice against Catholic teaching for five years. “We do it outside of the church structure. We understand that when two people love each other, God is certainly involved,” he argues. Secrecy will no longer be necessary: the Vatican approved the blessings this Monday on homosexual couples, but without equating them with heterosexual couples.
The Holy See's statement endorses “the possibility of blessing for couples in irregular situations and for same-sex couples,” but clarifies that it should not be “confused” with “the sacrament of marriage,” and also emphasizes that “You can not be carried out at the same time as the rites of civil partnership.” A balance with which the Pope seeks to avoid any hint of division in the Church.
Gema Segoviano (left) and Ana Cabeza at their wedding in 2006.
The sensitivity and caution with which the Vatican drafted the document issued by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, is justified by the discrepancies between the most open sector of the German Church, and the most traditional and most conservative, who are reluctant to any social progress. Since his arrival at the Vatican in 2013, the pontiff has faced criticism from both sides.
This latest opening reversal refutes the Holy See's position on blessings in 2021, when the CDF, then led by Spaniard Luis Ladaria, claimed the Catholic Church could not perform them for same-sex couples. Back then, a hundred German priests warned against ignoring the acts and continuing to carry out the acts on same-sex couples who wished to do so. The door was opened to a division that never materialized.
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The religious celebration of the union between Segoviano and Cabeza was very discreet to “prevent the community from being exposed to reproaches,” recalls the first of them. “We dared to do it because we knew other couples who had done it, in community houses that looked like catacombs, always in secret,” he says.
Priest Canet denounces that “society cannot oppose the love that exists in a couple, and even less the Church, since this would be a true heresy.” In private or in the company of their closest friends and family, three couples have received the blessing of the priest from the Raval district of Barcelona.
Carlos García-Ramos (A Coruña, 24 years old) says that he was inspired by God in Ethiopia, where he worked as a volunteer in a missionary community. In his case, bisexuality was never a problem in the church because it was accepted from the beginning. “It happens that my social circles reject my Catholicism,” he clarifies.
García-Ramos believes that the Vatican document “is a source to show that the Church is evolving, albeit slowly.” “These statements do not change my daily life, but I feel that they do “We are looking at us and creating these spaces for debate,” he emphasizes.
Beatriz Martínez (Madrid, 24 years old) agrees with García-Ramos that any movement, “no matter how minimal,” is already a world for an institution like the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the anomalous character that this blessing ascribes to homosexual couples “squeaks”. “If you don't enter into the ordinary marriage, the blessing becomes 'We forgive you for existing,'” he says.
Something similar happened to 23-year-old Amelia from Murcia (name changed), who has always been very close to the Church, but when she realized that she was attracted to people of the same gender, she was helpless. “I remember being 17 years old and the priest telling me that homosexuality was not a cure and that bisexuality was a pure vice,” he says. She admits that the rejection made her live her sexuality with shame and repression. For Amelia, the Pope’s announcement is a “little drama.” “What is irregular in my relationship, why do I have to secretly ask a priest?” he asks himself.
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The sentiment from LGTBI+ Christian groups is bittersweet. They acknowledge the progress but warn that they are still not equated with heterosexual couples. For the spokesman for the Association of Homosexual Christians and Christians of Madrid (CRISMHOM), Raúl Peña, it is a “positive gesture” that, however, “does not change anything in the Church”. “The priests who performed the blessings in a discreet and hidden way now have legal protection with this document,” says Peña. The president of the Christian Association of Gays and Lesbians (ACGIL), Jordi Valls, agrees with the analysis and protests because the church considers it a “second category”. “There is a part of the institution, that which has doctrinal and hierarchical power, which is anchored in the medieval and self-referential paradigm,” comments Valls.
The priests decide
The final decision about the blessing rests with the priests and priests. Some, like Canet, have been doing this discreetly for years, despite Catholic opposition. This is also the case with James Alison (64 years old, London), who made his first appearance in Chile in 1994 and has since repeated it whenever a couple asked him to. Alison, who has lived in Madrid for nine years, praises “the change in tone” from the Vatican.
The position of Canet or Alison is by no means universal among the clergy. The Pope's announcement, published this Monday, has sparked a wave of criticism from members of the Church, with some refusing to put these blessings into practice. One of the harshest was Juan Manuel Góngora, priest of the Diocese of Almería, who expressed his opposition on X (formerly Twitter). “Do not count on me to bless couples of people who are in a state of mortal sin.” […] among adulterers or practicing sodomites,” Góngora wrote.
After reading the document completely, I confirm:
First. In the light of the tradition of the Church, the principle of non-contradiction and discernment of conscience as a priest of Jesus Christ, I bless the person who seeks the grace of God and constant conversion, which all… https://t. co/ Qdvrv8zH96
— Father Juan Manuel Góngora (@patergongora) December 18, 2023
The priest of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Jorge González Guadalix, also made powerful comments in his blog. “For years we have seen pants being pulled down in response to the demands of movements for so-called gay rights,” complained González Guadalix.
The reaction in other countries was mixed. While in Germany or Mexico they view the Vatican's declaration positively, in African countries such as Zambia or Kenya, where laws are far more restrictive for the LGBTI+ community, they are quick to warn against applying the blessings.
The Spanish Bishops' Conference (CEE) has avoided commenting on the document issued by the Vatican. The Secretary General, Monsignor Francisco César García Magán, argued in a press conference this Tuesday that the EEC “does not make an assessment of the documents of the Holy See” and stressed “the importance of not confusing this blessing with that of canonical marriage”. as mentioned again and again in the text. The Archdiocese of Barcelona shares the silence and confines itself to attending the document “with great attention, given its doctrinal value”.
Daniela Rubio is an expert on canonical marriage law and warns that the statements are symbolic. “The Pope’s blessing is not comparable to a heterosexual marriage and has no legal value,” Rubio explains. According to the 1983 Canonical Code, to be valid, a marriage must be concluded according to the established form (the rite), have the consent of both parties and be heterosexual. “As long as this definition does not change, everything will remain the same. The church is modernizing, but I doubt there will ever be legal Catholic gay marriage,” he emphasizes.
Since arriving at the Holy See a decade ago, Pope Francis has taken small steps toward accepting gay people in the church. “Who am I to judge gays,” the current pontiff said as he returned from a trip to Rio de Janeiro in 2013. Later, in 2020, he supported the creation of laws protecting civil partnerships between people of the same sex. “Homosexuals are children of God and have the right to be in a family,” declared the Pope, who two years later called on parents not to judge a child with “a different sexual orientation,” but to accompany and support him. Of course, the Vatican still does not recognize marriage between same-sex couples as valid, and although it believes that “homosexuality is not a crime,” it has repeatedly stated that it is “a sin.”
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Spain's progressive position on the rights of the LGTBI+ community contrasts with the homophobic backlash occurring in other countries around the world. In Europe, both Hungary and Poland have launched several offensives by right-wing extremist governments in recent years. In Russia and Saudi Arabia, where authoritarian regimes rule, any reference to sexual diversity is criminalized or deleted. Homosexuality is banned in 32 of the 54 African countries. Given this situation, the CRISMHOM spokesperson believes that the Pope's statement is “a lifeline for LGTBI+ people.”
While the pope aims to please open-minded and conservative people, priests like Canet will continue to bless same-sex couples like Segoviano and Cabeza. As always, but without secrecy or secrecy. “The rejection of homosexual relationships has been a constant in the history of the institution,” says Canet. “LGTBI people stay in the church because faith weighs on us more than rejection,” says García-Ramos.
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