Vatican’s blessing guidelines: global responses to
Fiducia Supplicans a year later
Pope Francis meets
with members of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on
Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. | Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jan 26, 2025 / 06:00 am
The final day of the Jubilee of the World of Communications,
which ran from Jan. 24–26, coincides with the one-year anniversary of Pope
Francis’ meeting with participants of the plenary session of the Dicastery for
the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) following the release of Fiducia
Supplicans — the Vatican’s declaration on the pastoral meaning of
blessings.
Though the initial tidal wave of controversy
surrounding Fiducia Supplicans has largely died down, for
many, the Vatican’s document on “pastoral and spontaneous blessings” caused
more confusion than clarity on the Church’s long-standing teachings on human
sexuality, morality, and the sacrament of marriage.
The close of the special jubilee for communicators provides
an opportunity to reflect on the impact of Fiducia Supplicans and
Vatican communications — particularly sensitive communications delivered by the
office responsible for defending and promoting Catholic doctrine — to people
living in various historical, socio-cultural, and political contexts around the
world.
North America
he National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister new partner,
reported Fiducia Supplicans did not cause too many
complications for the Catholic priests in the United States. Following the
Register’s survey of all 177 Latin-rite dioceses in the
U.S., “virtually none reported receiving either complaints or comments from
priests or other people regarding practices stemming from the document,” the
Register reported.
A spokesman for Father Peter Karalus, vicar general of the
Diocese of Buffalo, New York, told the Register that after initial discussions
on the Vatican document with the diocese’s presbyteral council and other
consultative bodies, there had “not been any follow-up discussions or requests
for discussion.”
The 21 dioceses that responded to the Register’s inquiry
also reported that blessings offered by priests are not tracked.
In Mexico, the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM) asked
priests and parishioners to avoid distorting the pastoral meaning of blessings
called for by Pope Francis. The bishops’ conference stated that “an attitude of
welcome, closeness, and discernment” with “delicacy, firmness, and clarity” are
needed to accompany people “on their path to fulfill the will of God in their
lives.”
Europe
In Germany, many dioceses had instituted formal blessings
for same-sex couples prior to the release of Fiducia Supplicans. A
CNA Deutsch analysis found that 21 of Germany’s 27
dioceses provide some form of “queer pastoral care,” with several offering
structured blessing ceremonies that exceed the parameters outlined in the DDF
declaration.
To further clarify the purpose and meaning of Fiducia
Supplicans, the Vatican’s press office issued a Jan. 11, 2024, press
release explicitly stating only “pastoral and spontaneous blessings” are
permitted, while any rituals that could suggest equivalence to marriage were
prohibited.
In stark contrast, the Dutch bishops’ conference explicitly
rejected nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples as proposed in Fiducia
Supplicans, CNA Deutsch reported. Dutch Bishop Rob Mutsaerts
criticized the declaration as appearing to seek “peace with secular society” at
the cost of clarity on Church teaching.
In Spain, Archbishop José Sanz Montes of Oviedo shared
similar sentiments, saying the DDF declaration showed “gender ideology has
penetrated the Church,” reported ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news
partner. Sanz Montes added: “Today, if you don’t use the jargon of gender
ideology … if you don’t wear a pin and the 2030 agenda in your guts, it seems
like you’re in another world and you’re being pushed aside.”
The fact that the DDF already released a 2021 explanatory note on blessing unions of persons
of the same sex — clearly stating that the “Church does not have, and cannot
have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex” — Sanz Montes as
well as Spanish Bishop José Ignacio Munilla said they did not think the release
of Fiducia Supplicans was necessary.
Africa
The strongest collective resistance to Fiducia
Supplicans came from the Catholic Church’s African bishops.
The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and
Madagascar (SECAM) was clear and vocal about its outright rejection of
spontaneous nonliturgical blessings, which it said “caused a shockwave” and
“sow[ed] misconceptions and unrest in the minds” of many Catholic faithful.
“We, the African bishops, do not consider it appropriate for
Africa to bless homosexual unions or same-sex couples because, in our context,
this would cause confusion and would be in direct contradiction to the cultural
ethos of African communities,” read the Jan. 11, 2024, SECAM statement signed
by Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo.
Middle East
The controversy sparked by Fiducia Supplicans extended
into north Africa and the Church in the Middle East.
Just months after the document’s release, Egypt’s Coptic
Orthodox Church halted dialogue with the Vatican following
consultation with other Eastern Orthodox churches in the region — a setback to
ecumenical dialogue after Pope Francis instituted an annual “Day of Friendship
Between Copts and Catholics” in 2013 and included the Coptic Orthodox martyrs to
the Catholic Church’s list of saints in 2023.
Following the Coptic Orthodox Church’s 2024 synod, spokesman
Father Moussa Ibrahim confirmed the decision to halt theological dialogue with
the Catholic Church after its perceived “change of position on the issue of
homosexuality.”
Latin America
A 2024 article published by ADN Celam, a news service of the
Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM), described Fiducia
Supplicans as “an instrument of merciful love and great pastoral
richness” that does not change Church teaching on human sexuality and morality.
Defending the document signed by Argentine DDF prefect
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández as “clear and firm,” ADN Celam added that the
Dec. 18, 2023, release of Fiducia Supplicans on the feast of
Our Lady of Hope, one week before Christmas Day, was not a “random” decision.
“We trust that this pastoral approach to couples in
irregular situations and same-sex couples, through blessing outside the
liturgical or semi-liturgical context, will invoke the help of God for those
who humbly turn to him,” the ADN Celam report said.
Asia
In the Catholic Church’s stronghold in the region, president
of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Cardinal Pablo
Virgilio David, endorsed Fiducia Supplicans, stating: “The document
speaks for itself and therefore does not require much explanation,” CBCP News
reported.
The Dec. 20, 2023, CBCP advisory highlighted five
key paragraphs — namely paragraphs 13, 25, 31, 38, and 39 — for Filipino
priests to consider for prudent discernment and fatherly care for the country’s
Catholic faithful.
Both Singapore’s Cardinal William Goh and India’s Cardinal
Oswald Gracias believe the Vatican document left little room for
misunderstanding the Church’s teachings on human sexuality.
“We show mercy but we do not approve of same-sex unions
because without truth, love is compromised,” Goh shared through his communications
office.
“Fiducia Supplicans has become the subject of
controversy because it is misunderstood ... There is no change in Church
doctrine on marriage between a man and a woman,” Gracias told Asia News. “The
tradition of the Church, the magisterium is very clear and there is no
contradiction.”
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