A statement authorised by Pope Francis, which parallels discussion in the Church of England, says it is possible to bless same-sex couples, but without offering the impression of a marriage. “Fiducia Supplicans,” issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, says that the Catholic doctrine of marriage has not changed. In this story, The Other Cheek attempts to quote enough of the official document to show the thinking behind the declaration.
“This Declaration remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage, not allowing any type of liturgical rite or blessing similar to a liturgical rite that can create confusion,” the official English translation of Fiducia supplicans said. “The value of this document, however, is that it offers a specific and innovative contribution to the pastoral meaning of blessings, permitting a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings, which is closely linked to a liturgical perspective.”
This raises the question of what the blessings mean. “On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings” – the English translation of the declaration’s title indicates that these same-sex blessings form part of a declaration about what it means to be blessed by a catholic priest. The declaration’s full text is here.
Marriage
The new statement is written as a further response to questions (dubia) posed by conservative cardinals. It responds to questions they posed about whether there was any change to marriage.
“Pope Francis’ recent response to the second of the five questions posed by two Cardinals offers an opportunity to explore this issue further, especially in its pastoral implications. It is a matter of avoiding that “something that is not marriage is being recognized as marriage.” [1] Therefore, rites and prayers that could create confusion between what constitutes marriage—which is the “exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children”—and what contradicts it are inadmissible. This conviction is grounded in the perennial Catholic doctrine of marriage; it is only in this context that sexual relations find their natural, proper, and fully human meaning. The Church’s doctrine on this point remains firm.”
Blessings
“Fiducia Supplicans,” says the church can not bless sex outside of man-women marriage.
“..it is necessary that what is blessed corresponds with God’s designs written in the creation and fully revealed by Christ the Lord. For this reason, since the Church has always considered only those sexual relations that are lived out within marriage to be morally licit, the 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. The Holy Father reiterated the substance of this Declaration in his Respuestas to the Dubia of two Cardinals.
But this does not rule out blessings. “One must also avoid the risk of reducing the meaning of blessings to this point of view alone, for it would lead us to expect the same moral conditions for a simple blessing that are called for in the reception of the sacraments. “
Bible Blessings: “Fiducia Supplicans” surveys the role of blessings in the Bible from Melchizedek, the Psalms to Jesus blessing Children.
Blessing as a pastoral act. “In order to help us understand the value of a more pastoral approach to blessings, Pope Francis urges us to contemplate, with an attitude of faith and fatherly mercy, the fact that “when one asks for a blessing, one is expressing a petition for God’s assistance, a plea to live better, and confidence in a Father who can help us live better.”[2] This request should, in every way, be valued, accompanied, and received with gratitude. People who come spontaneously to ask for a blessing show by this request their sincere openness to transcendence, the confidence of their hearts that they do not trust in their own strength alone, their need for God, and their desire to break out of the narrow confines of this world, enclosed in its limitations.
Everyone who asks for a blessing should get one: The Church’s liturgy itself invites us to adopt this trusting attitude, even in the midst of our sins, lack of merits, weaknesses, and confusions, as witnessed by this beautiful Collect from the Roman Missal: “Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask” (Collect for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time). How often, through a pastor’s simple blessing, which does not claim to sanction or legitimize anything, can people experience the nearness of the Father beyond all “merits” and “desires”?
Sinners can ask for a blessing: “… even when a person’s relationship with God is clouded by sin, he can always ask for a blessing, stretching out his hand to God, as Peter did in the storm when he cried out to Jesus, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew14:30). Indeed, desiring and receiving a blessing can be the possible good in some situations. Pope Francis reminds us that “a small step, in the midst of great human limitations, can be more pleasing to God than a life which appears outwardly in order but moves through the day without confronting great difficulties.”[3] In this way, “what shines forth is the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ, who died and rose from the dead.”[4]
A translation to Protestant-speak
For a non-Catholic Christian, blessing something can mean giving approval to an idea or project. But the Catholic ideas in “Fiducia Supplicans” are different to that.
Possibly the best parallel for non-Catholics is prayer. The thinking in “Fiducia Supplicans” is that a priest giving a blessing encourages someone to seek God. This is on the basis that God can work in peopl’e lives – and asking for a blessing can be a sign of that. So,, a protestant version might be when someone asks for prayer.
Perhaps the everyday protestant version of “blessing” is prayer. In everyday conversation, a common response is to say “I will pray for you.”
That might be specific – praying for healing, or for a job, but it might simply be a general assurance that one will pray for God to do good things, and draw them to him.
“I will pray for you” is the closest non-Catholic equivelent of the blessings “Fiducia Supplicans” discusses.
[1] [2]Quotes the questions raised by the Cardinals.
[3] Francis, Ap. Exhort. Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013), no. 44: AAS 105 (2013), 1038-1039.
[4] Ibid., no. 36: AAS 105 (2013), 1035.