The Vatican had on Thursday, moved to appease Catholic bishops in some countries who have reacted negatively to last month’s approval of blessings for same-sex couples. These Catholic bishops had said that the measure is both “heretical” and “blasphemous”.
In a five-page statement, the Vatican’s doctrinal office also recognised that such blessings could be unwise in certain countries where people who receive the blessings could become targets of violence, or risk prison or worse, death.
Catholic bishops in certain nations, including Africa, have expressed bewilderment and different degrees of dissent over the Dec. 18 announcement, known by its Latin title Fiducia Supplicans (meaning Supplicating Trust).
After the original declaration was issued, a number of Catholic Bishops conferences released statements stressing that the blessings did not equal to a legal approval of gay sex or a sacrament of marriage for same-sex couples.
The doctrinal office, aka the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, highlighted these aspects in its statement on Thursday, saying that blessings for same-sex couples should not be seen as “a rationale of all their actions, and they are not an endorsement of the life that they lead”.
The office additionally said it wanted “to elucidate the reception of Fiducia Supplicans while suggesting at the same time, a full and calm reading” of the December 18 declaration.
