Catholicism
Conservative cardinals had called on the Pope to affirm teachings on LGBTQ+ issues
Associated Press
Pope Francis has suggested there might be ways to bless same-sex unions, responding to five conservative cardinals who called on him to reaffirm church teaching on homosexuality ahead of a major meeting where LGBTQ+ Catholics are on the agenda.
The Vatican on Monday released a letter that Francis wrote to the cardinals on July 11 after receiving a list of five questions (dubia) from them a day earlier. In it, Francis suggests that such blessings could be examined if they were not confused with sacramental marriage.
New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics, said the letter “significantly advances” efforts to welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics into the church and is “a big straw to break the camel’s back.” in their marginalization.
The Vatican believes that marriage is an indissoluble bond between a man and a woman. For this reason, she has long been against gay marriage. But Francis has expressed support for civil laws extending legal benefits to same-sex spouses, and Catholic priests in parts of Europe have blessed same-sex unions without censure from the Vatican.
However, Francis’ response to the cardinals marks a reversal from the Vatican’s current official position. In a 2021 statement, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated that the church cannot bless homosexual unions because “God cannot bless sin.”
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In his new letter, Francis reiterated that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. However, when asked by the cardinals about homosexual unions and blessings, he replied that “pastoral charity” requires patience and understanding and that priests cannot become judges “who only deny, reject and exclude”.
“For this reason, pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing requested by one or more persons that do not convey a false idea of marriage,” he wrote. “For when a blessing is asked, it is an expression of a request for help from God, a request to live better, a trust in a Father who can help us live better.”
He said there are situations that are objectively “morally unacceptable,” but the same “pastoral charity” requires that people be treated as sinners who may not be entirely to blame for their situation.
Francis added that there was no need for dioceses or bishops’ conferences to transform such pastoral charity into fixed norms or protocols, saying the issue could be resolved on a case-by-case basis “because the life of the Church runs through channels beyond the norms.” “.
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, welcomed the pope’s openness.
“Permitting chaplains to bless same-sex couples implies that the church actually recognizes that holy love can exist between same-sex couples and that the love of these couples reflects the love of God,” DeBernardo said in a statement. “While these recognitions are not quite what LGBTQ+ Catholics would want, they represent tremendous progress toward fuller and more inclusive equality.”
The five cardinals, all conservative prelates from Europe, Asia, Africa and America, had called on Francis in their letter to reaffirm church teaching on gays, the ordination of women, the authority of the pope and other issues.
They released the material two days before the start of a major three-week synod at the Vatican where LGBTQ+ Catholics and their place in the church will be on the agenda.
The signatories were some of Francis’ harshest critics, all retired and from the more doctrinaire generation of cardinals led by John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI. were appointed.
They were Walter Brandmüller from Germany, a former Vatican historian; Raymond Burke of the US, whom Francis fired as head of the Vatican Supreme Court; Juan Sandoval of Mexico, the retired archbishop of Guadalajara; Robert Sarah of Guinea, the retired head of the Vatican’s liturgy office; and Joseph Zen, the retired archbishop of Hong Kong.
Brandmüller and Burke were among four signatories to an earlier round of dubia to Francis in 2016, following his controversial move to allow divorced and remarried couples to receive communion. At the time, cardinals were concerned that Francis’ position violated church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. Francis never responded to her questions and two of her co-signers subsequently died.
Francis actually answered this time. The cardinals did not publish his answer, but apparently found it so unsatisfactory that they reworded their five questions, presented them to him again, and asked him to simply answer “yes” or “no.” When he failed to do so, the cardinals decided to publish the texts and send a “notification” to the faithful.
The Vatican’s Doctrine Office published its response a few hours later, although without his introduction, in which he urged cardinals not to be afraid of the synod.
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