Here We Go Again…

In a time where information and disinformation can spread across the world in a half second, it is unfortunate that ambiguity seems to be a hallmark of the current papacy. Ambiguity has NO place in theology – especially moral theology, and it should not be defended (looking at you Barron….). However, when people confuse what the Church actually teaches with what the media portrays the Pope to be saying, it needs to be answered. This, then, is not a defense of the latest confusing papal pronouncement – but a correction to the knee-jerk reactions that are being generated by misleading media headlines.

Simply put, the Pope’s allowing the “blessing of same-sex couples” is not a blessing of affirmation – nor could such a thing ever be part of the Church’s moral teachings. Indeed the blessings document itself specifies this: “the Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when that would somehow offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice.” (Quotes in bold from Fiducia Supplicans – “On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings”)

Of course, most people are not going to read the official document but only the media-spun headlines.

Nothing has Changed (Regarding the Status of Same-Sex Unions)

Those who do take the time need not even go past the introduction before they would see that, “in this context that one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.”

Note that Fiducia Supplicans addresses other invalid / immoral “unions.” Many Catholics will be surprised to know that their own civil marriages, second marriages, etc. are themselves considered “irregular unions” by the Church. Thus, at many masses, couples in “irregular unions” have been being blessed (and allowed to receive communion) for many years.

If one were to read four more paragraphs, they would see that any “rites and prayers that could create confusion between what constitutes marriage—which is the ‘exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children’—and what contradicts it are inadmissible. This conviction is grounded in the perennial Catholic doctrine of marriage; it is only in this context that sexual relations find their natural, proper, and fully human meaning. The Church’s doctrine on this point remains firm.”

So what is really going on here?

What is a Blessing?

The media are playing on a verbal confusion that arises over the multiple meanings of the word “bless” which is evident even in Sacred Scripture. It can mean at least these four distinct things:

• Desire for good (e.g., “Blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee” – Ps. 127:2).
• Praise (e.g., “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall be always in my mouth” – Ps. 33:1).
• Dedication to some sacred purpose (e.g., “Christ took bread and blessed, and broke” – Matthew 26:26).
• Gifting (e.g., “I beseech thee therefore take a blessing of thy servant” – 2 Kings 6:15).

It is the first meaning in view here and even this is limited (N.B.: not expanded) to include “those who—recognizing themselves to be destitute and in need of his help—do not claim a legitimation of their own status.” These are not people seeking validation of their sin, but rather those, “who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.”

Why the Confusion?

This confusion is not just the media’s fault. The document in question is itself part of a clarification of the Vatican’s 2021 Responsum, which taught that:

“It is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex.”

The Responsum, however, was directed against certain unfaithful priests “blessing” same-sex unions themselves as if they were actual marriages (looking at you, Martin). Doing so is not the same thing as the “blessings” explained in Fiducia Supplicans which, then, should be seen as a limitation and clarification of what blessings are available to those in same-sex relationships. It is not a contradiction nor an expansion of the Church’s perennial teachings on same-sex relationships.

The document’s “innovative contribution” is not a theological innovation in the way the media portray it (e.g., “radical change,” “shocking reversal,” “historic shift”). And even if it was, the innovation / development isn’t even directed toward same-sex unions – rather it concerns “the pastoral meaning of blessings” (emphasis in original). Could Fiducia Supplicans have been clearer and included more pastoral instruction on proper catechesis and direction for those in same-sex relationships? Yes. Did it radically reverse Church teaching? Not at all.

Who May Receive Blessings (and How)?

Not only can we bless God (Ps. 33:1) and saints (Lk. 1:42), but also our enemies (Mt. 5:44). So of course, the Church has always allowed sinners to receive such blessings (like when the Pope blesses whole crowds – they may not be Catholics or even believers!).

The point of this document is not to expand the Church’s acceptance of homosexual behavior, but rather to limit and clarify what can be done to help people in same-sex relationships. The key is that in doing so the Church must avoid the appearance of affirming “something that is not marriage is being recognized as marriage.”

In one clarifying statement the document explains that, “The possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex, the form of which should not be fixed ritually by ecclesial authorities to avoid producing confusion with the blessing proper to the Sacrament of Marriage.” Again, the confusion of affirming true, valid, sacramental marriages along with same-sex relationships is to be avoided.

Why Does The Church Allow These Blessings?

As should be clear by now, the Church is not promoting the blessing of same-sex relationships but rather offering blessings to individuals in same-sex relationships. What chance do people in these situations (or any other sinful lifestyle) have if not from receiving God’s grace? They should not, however, be being blessed qua couple.

All of this is spelled out in the document, as is the purpose of this kind of blessing: “so that human relationships may mature and grow in fidelity to the Gospel, that they may be freed from their imperfections and frailties, and that they may express themselves in the ever-increasing dimension of the divine love.”

So the Church is allowing these people to receive blessings for the same reason it allows anyone – because everyone needs them: “The great blessing of God is Jesus Christ. He is the great gift of God, his own Son. He is a blessing for all humanity, a blessing that has saved us all. He is the Eternal Word, with whom the Father blessed us ‘while we were still sinners’ (Rom. 5:8), as St. Paul says. He is the Word made flesh, offered for us on the cross.”

We can all be thankful that, “those seeking a blessing [of this type] should not be required to have prior moral perfection.”