Posted on 12/18/2023 7:04:52 PM PST by lightman
Corporate media outlets are running salacious headlines that Pope Francis is now allowing “priests to bless same-sex relationships.” The implication from the media is that the Catholic Church has made a “radical” reversal on its stance that marriage is between one man and one woman. This is factually untrue.
On Monday, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a “Declaration ‘Fiducia Supplicans’ On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings.” In the declaration, the Vatican first reaffirms that marriage is the “exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children.”
The document also establishes that contrary to media reports, liturgical blessings related to formal Church sacraments can never endorse same-sex unions, which the Catholic Church does not recognize. “[T]he 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,” reads the declaration.
The document does say that individuals, including “same-sex couples,” may receive “spontaneous,” “informal” blessings related to overcoming human sin. “[O]ne should not prevent or prohibit the Church’s closeness to people in every situation in which they might seek God’s help through a simple blessing,” states the document.
This, of course, is not new information. Anyone — irrespective of the types of sin they happen to struggle with — has always been able to receive an informal blessing from a Catholic priest. In other words, the document is a pointless reiteration of already established Church teachings. Indeed, the declaration is being grotesquely misrepresented by the corporate media and leftist Catholics who wish the document had been a reversal of Church doctrine, which, again, it was not.
While the document is theologically sound, many Catholics are calling it a “pastoral nightmare.” Ulrich L. Lehner, a Catholic historian who teaches in the University of Notre Dame theology department, warns that the document’s “imprecise language invites misunderstanding and will sow confusion.”
Lehner explains that “some bishops will use it as a pretext to do what the document explicitly forbids, especially since the Vatican has not stopped them before.” Here, Lehner is referring to a cohort of German priests who have been formally blessing same-sex unions, not simply same-sex attracted individuals, since 2021, without condemnation from the Vatican. “[The document] is, and I hate to say it, an invitation to schism,” wrote Lehner.
The misleading “Declaration On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings” is on-brand for Francis. As The Federalist’s John Davidson explains, Francis has a history of being “intentionally vague about matters that should be clear-cut, and this vagueness sows confusion. Why would he want to sow confusion? To open up room for change.”
In the case of the “Declaration On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings,” one must ask what its purpose is in the first place if not to sow chaos and confusion. If Francis cared about upholding Church doctrine and providing necessary clarity on the issue of priests blessing same-sex unions, the Vatican would have given an immediate and direct repudiation of the German priests blessing same-sex unions two years ago, with only a secondary note that, as we already know, individuals who seek God’s grace to avoid sin may be blessed by priests.
The Vatican’s response Monday was wildly delayed, failed to directly address German priests, and focused far more on the already-established fact that same-sex individuals can receive blessings rather than the fact that same-sex unions are contradictory to Church teaching and cannot be blessed by priests. All these things combined have prompted the media to egregiously misrepresent the “Declaration On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings,” but perhaps that was Francis’ intention.
Local news (See BS affiliate) was very careful to state several times that this is not allowing marriage, and whatever blessing is used cannot imply marriage, so give them credit for that. They also interviewed a sodomite who said the church has a long way to go, and stated that marriage is, “according to the Catholic Church” between 1 man and 1 woman. Kind of easy to tell where their sympathies lie.
Every post I’ve seen on this site about the story was from a blog.
What are you talking about? Francis has made no official decree changing anything
Sadly, yes.
Is Pope Francis a left-leaning Catholic leader?
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/is-pope-francis-a-left-leaning-catholic-leader-40329
As per usual, nobody actually knows exactly what this poser was trying to say.
All christian denominations of Christian faith have split apart over homosexual sin. The Catholic Church was the rock that protected marriage from divorce and adultery and homosexuality and now it has fallen to the world. Why? Why does the Catholic Church fail on homosexuality at the same time the U.S. Senate is desecrated by homosexuals.
Have the majority of the magisterium become homosexuals in the Church and go along with this Francis heresy? The Catholic Church was a beacon of hope to protect young people from this terrible sin. Now they will believe the Church says it is okay to fall to the sin of homosexuality with the blessing of the Catholic Church? This saddens me deeply. Do I continue to support a church with leadership that is fallen? When the Catholic Church closed its doors during covid I found myself going to a Presbyterian Church with open doors. I will never leave or abandon my faith in my Catholic belief of the sacred sacraments. Many Cardinals and Bishops and many priests have fallen. Christ will always be there for His flock. The sheep are being separated from the goats. May the Immaculate heart of Christ and our Savior triumph over all the evil in the world. May God bless all those who truly believe.
Lehner explains that “some bishops will use it as a pretext to do what the document explicitly forbids, especially since the Vatican has not stopped them before....
This is EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE HOPING FOR...A MISCOMMUNICATION, AND MISUNDERSTOOD PHRASE AND A TOTAL DISASTER.
That man posing as a pope has to go.
He is as devious as Satan, as cunning as any heretic who may have tried to eliminate Catholics...
Ignore the man in White, until we can replace him with a GOOD MAN.
Lehner explains that “some bishops will use it as a pretext to do what the document explicitly forbids, especially since the Vatican has not stopped them before....
This is EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE HOPING FOR...A MISCOMMUNICATION, AND MISUNDERSTOOD PHRASE AND A TOTAL DISASTER.
That man posing as a pope has to go.
He is as devious as Satan, as cunning as any heretic who may have tried to eliminate Catholics...
Ignore the man in White, until we can replace him with a GOOD MAN.
I see the names...in what context are you listing them? Churches that are working for Christ or are apostate?
Sounds like the media I’ve seen has got it right.
No, the media aren’t lying. Berglogio and his deplorable posse knew exactly what they were doing... and they knew exactly how the media would take their convoluted document and boil it down to “Church will now bless same-sex relationships.” It doesn’t matter what kind of hair-splitting pseudo-orthodoxy exists in the text of the document, the “spirit” of the document is exactly what the media is saying it is.
Martin Luther was a smart cookie.
This has been a tactic since VII. Put out documents or statements that are intentionally ambiguous and the liberal interpretation always wins out. But if this is truly ambiguous
, there’s no question which side Frankie is on. It’s a done deal. Now the world will think that the Catholic Church teaches it’s okay to be a queer.
What would Jesus think about that?
Polish labor unions were fighting for freedom from Communism at the time, not fighting capitalism.
Everyone is an “individual sinner”.
....So blessing of individual sinners, not of their sinful relationships?....
Thats what it is technically, but its a close shave and gives the impression of scandal. Not good.
It’s impossible to pick a side on this one: The evil, lying media, or the non-Catholic pope.
I hope they BOTH lose.
“What are you talking about? Francis has made no official decree changing anything.”
This is what I am talking about:
ROME — The Vatican has reversed its position banning the blessing of homosexual couples, asserting that a blessing can now be “offered to all without requiring anything.”
I am not Catholic, but I would be alarmed if I were.
Malachi Martin said that the worst thing that could happen to the Catholic Church would be to have a Jesuit pope. Now you have one.
The popes previously would try to destroy the Jesuits.
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