Vatican top theologian seeks to quell conservative revolt over same sex blessings

 VATICAN CITY – The Catholic Church’s top theologian, Argentinian Cardinal Manuel Fernandez, has moved to try and quell growing unease among many conservative bishops over the Vatican's decision to allow blessings of same sex unions, by insisting that such ceremonies must be “very brief” and last no longer than “10 to 15 seconds.”

 Archbishop Fernandez, recently appointed by the Argentinian pontiff as Prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued the clarification after publishing a short time before Christmas the new measure, welcomed by many homosexuals, allowing such blessings, and setting off fierce opposition from several countries’ episcopal conferences who have made it known they will not comply with issuing such blessings, viewing them as heresy, especially in some African countries where homosexuality is a crime where bishops have gone so far as to say they will forbid them in their dioceses.

 Archbishop Fernandez on Wednesday in his clarification note giving practical guidance on implementing the new measure insisted that the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine on the sanctity of heterosexual marriage has not changed while such “pastoral blessings” of gay or lesbian couples must be “very brief,” and not more than 10 or 15 seconds.

 If two gay people approach a priest he can “simply ask the Lord for peace, health and other good things for these two persons,” Fernandez said.

 At the same time, he added, “one asks that they can live the Gospel in full faithfulness and that the Holy Spirt liberate these two persons from everything that does not correspond to divine will and everything that requires purification.”

“The priest can recite a simple oration such as ‘Lord, see these your sons, give them health, work, peace and reciprocal help. Free them of everything that contradicts your Gospel and allow them to live according to your will. Amen.’ And conclude with the sign of the cross over each of the two.”

 Fernandez addressed himself to critics by asking “is there any sense in denying this kind of blessings for these two people who beg for it?”

 At the same time the blessing must not be given during a civil union ceremony and “not with the dress, gestures or words of matrimony.”

 Fernandez said the clarification was a “clear answer” to German bishops who interpreted the new decree as giving them a green light for ritualized same sex blessings, when instead only spontaneous blessings are allowed under the new rule.

 Members of the controversial German Synodal Way, a collaboration between the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) and a powerful lay lobby (ZdK), overwhelmingly approved developing formalized ritual texts for same-sex blessings at a March 2023 assembly in Frankfurt.

Since then, several German bishops have greenlighted public blessings of same-sex couples in their dioceses. And following the publication of Fiducia Supplicans, ZdK vice president Birgit Mock said the Church in Germany would not scrap its plans to develop a formal text of same-sex blessings, despite the guidance’s prohibitions.

 Archbishop Fernández, who has failed to shake off his reputation as the 'the kissing prelate,' because of a popular book he wrote about kissing in 1995 as a young priest, suggested that some German Catholics may fail to appreciate the perspectives of Catholics in other parts of the world on questions related to sexuality.

 “Listening to some reflections made in the context of the German Synodal Path, it sometimes seems that a part of the world feels particularly ‘enlightened’ to understand what the other poor wretches are unable to grasp because they are closed or medieval, and then this ‘enlightened’ part naively believes that thanks to it, the whole universal Church is reformed and freed from the old schemes,” Fernández told Die Tagespost.

 Archbishop Fernandez said bishops can take time to consider the new measure and acknowledged it would be “imprudent” to practice it in countries where declaring homosexuality can lead to prison, torture or death.

 Vatican observers however noted that while the measure is already in force Fernandez ommitted to mention that the Catechism of the Catholic Church still defines homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered and contrary to natural law,” stating that “in no case can they be approved.”

 jp