A Nigerian Catholic priest, Father Ugochukwu Ugwoke has spoken in support of Pope Francis after the Catholic Church head just yesterday, gave permission to blessing same-sex marriages.
Recall that on Monday, December 18, Pope Francis officially gave priests under the Roman Catholic church, permission to bless same-sex and “queer” couples, under special circumstances.
These blessings, according to the Vatican would not be part of regular Church rituals nor related to civil unions or weddings.
While fully showing his support to this recent development, Father Ugochukwu, took to his X account (formerly Twitter) to ask: ‘HAS POPE FRANCIS CHANGED THE CHURCH’S TEACHING ABOUT MARRIAGE?
He noted that although the topic on same-sex marriage was a delicate matter, church laws were usually divided into three. To this, he said that Pope Francis had changed the one he could.
Father Ugochukwu’s post read:
“There has been a whole lot of confusion since the Vatican Document was publicized. “Fiducia supplicans” in which Pope Francis said that priests can give blessings to same-sex couples. The confusion is fairly anticipated and fathomable because the topic of same-sex union is a sensitive one.“But the thing is, all the laws and regulations in the Catholic Church may be divided into three kinds: 1) The one that the Church has no power to change, never has tried to change and never will change; 2) Those that the church has the authority to change, but most likely never change; 3) Those that she can change, has changed, and may change again according to the circumstances at that period of time.”
“So, if you think that the blessing of same-sex couples will lead to the eventual endorsement and approval of a same-sex marriage by the Catholic Church, then such will never happen without the Church running into the risks of rift. Same-sex marriages are sinful and can never be approved. But while the Church disapproves of same-sex union and considers it unsystematic, she does not censure same-sex couples.”
