A cardinal close to Pope Francis defended a recent statement by the Holy See that priests cannot bless same-sex unions, as the Vatican faced total dissent from some Catholic clergy and questions about the pontiff’s role in approving the document.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, head of the Vatican’s laity cabinet, agreed with the statement that a “blessing” is a sacramental action related to the sacrament of marriage, which the Catholic Church teaches can only be celebrated between a man and a woman.
Farrell said that although civil unions are not “marriages” as the Catholic Church understands the term, “I want to insist that no one, no one should ever be excluded from the Church’s pastoral care, love and concern”.
Pope Francis makes the midday Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on February 28. (AP)
((AP Photo / Gregorio Borgia))
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Farrell was speaking at a news conference launching a one-year celebration of Francis’s vision of family life, articulated in a 2016 document entitled “The Joy of Love”.
His comments were made amid continuing criticism of the document released on Monday by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which said the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions because God “cannot bless sin.”
In Austria, a group of dissident Catholic priests known as the Pfarrer-Initiative, or Pastors’ Initiative, said they were “deeply shocked” by the new decree and would not follow it.
“This is a return to the times we had hoped with Pope Francis to overcome,” said the priests in Austria in a statement. “We, in solidarity with so many, will not reject in the future any loving couple who ask to celebrate the blessing of God, which they experience every day, also in a worship service”.
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The group, which was founded in 2006 by nine priests and today claims 350 members “from the official Roman Catholic Church”, said the decree “discredits Jesus’ liberating message”.
A Belgian bishop, Antwerp bishop Johan Bonny, apologized to the faithful on Wednesday for what he said was a “painful and incomprehensible” decision.
In Germany, the bishop of Mainz, Peter Kohlgraf, also expressed dismay, saying he was “bothered” by the Vatican’s position and took seriously the criticisms he heard from his flock. In a statement on his diocesan website, Kohlgraf said he supports the views he expressed in writing last month, which appeared to endorse several liturgical blessings for gay couples that some priests were already using.
“The blessing celebrations arose from the pastoral care of those affected. Most of them are not formulas that reproduce marriage in the Church, nor is it intended to develop a uniform liturgy ”, he wrote. “No, I do not ask for a blessing similar to marriage. But I ask for accompaniment – instead of judging.”
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The distribution of the document was unusual. The Vatican press office did not give any advance notice that it was leaving. The document itself said that Francisco had only been “informed and agreed to the publication”.
Other documents from the Vatican orthodoxy office carry a much more reliable endorsement from the pope. A publication published on June 24 on the validity of some baptisms, for example, said that Francis “approved these responses and ordered their publication”.