Vatican prefect: Fiducia Supplicans draws ‘some negative reactions’ from Christian leaders

The cardinal said he also spoke with Metropolitan Hilarion of Budapest, of the Russian Orthodox Church, who expressed a “great shock when he read this document.”

When asked what the next steps would be in this process of dialoguing with the churches, Koch noted that during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity there will be the International Mixed Commission between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox churches in Rome.

“We have the plenary assembly of the Oriental Orthodox here in Rome just next week, and they have already announced that they can talk about these issues,” the Swiss prelate told EWTN.

Koch also indicated that in light of the feedback he has received from the Orthodox churches, he wrote to Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, for clarification ahead of this meeting, in order “to have some explanations.”

The plenary meeting of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue is held between the Catholic Church and the 14 autocephalous, or “self-headed,” Orthodox churches and will be held Jan. 22–26.

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‘Some negative reactions’

In a separate interview with the German section of Vatican News, Koch said that he had “received some negative reactions from the ecumenical world about Fiducia Supplicans.”

​​Asked whether a reading of Fiducia Supplicans might “almost justify Eucharistic hospitality [the extension of the Eucharist to non-Catholics] under certain narrowly defined conditions,” Koch said: “I believe that in ecumenical dialogue we need to think about this anew: What is blessing, and what is the relationship between doctrine and pastoral care?”

“These questions have now become acute again, and we need to talk about them,” the prelate said.

Koch joins a growing list of senior Vatican prelates who have publicly commented on the polarized reception to the dicastery’s Dec. 18 document. 

During a Jan. 12 conference held in Rome, the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, expressed that “this document has aroused very strong reactions; this means that a very delicate, very sensitive point has been touched; it will take further investigation.” 

When asked in a follow-up question by an Italian journalist if the document was a mistake, the Vatican’s top diplomat responded curtly: “I do not enter into these considerations; the reactions tell us that it has touched a very sensitive point."

Pope Francis responded publicly to questions about the Vatican’s declaration on blessings for same-sex couples for the first time on the Italian prime time TV show “Che tempo che fa,” which aired on Jan. 14. 

Asked if he “felt alone” after Fiducia Supplicans was met with some resistance, the 87-year-old pontiff said: “Sometimes decisions are not accepted.”

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“But in most cases, when you don’t accept a decision, it’s because you don’t understand,” he added.

This year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity celebration marks the 60th anniversary of the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem in 1964. That was the first formal meeting of a pope and ecumenical patriarch since 1438, marking a paradigm shift in the ecumenical relations between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.