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Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who heads the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, met with the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church on May 22.
The Holy Father this week again defended the Vatican’s controversial document authorizing blessings for same-sex couples.
The signatories claim that the declaration Fiducia Supplicans contradicts “both Scripture and the universal and uninterrupted Tradition of the Church.”
Pope Francis suggested that the opposition to the Vatican’s approval of nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples mostly comes from “small ideological groups.”
Pope Francis on Friday offered guidance to members of the Vatican’s doctrinal office for dealing with matters of faith.
In an exclusive EWTN interview and in comments to the Vatican’s news agency, Cardinal Kurt Koch said he has received negative reactions to Fiducia Supplicans.
Pope Francis responded publicly to questions about the Vatican’s declaration on blessings for same-sex couples for the first time in a television interview on Sunday night.
The Vatican’s secretary of state acknowledged the divided reaction to Fiducia Supplicans, which allows nonliturgical blessings for couples in “irregular” situations.
“The freedom we must offer to people living in homosexual unions lies in the truth of the word of God,” Cardinal Robert Sarah wrote Jan. 6.
Reactions have continued to pour in from Catholic Bishops in Africa on Fiducia Supplicans (FS), with many expressing their reservations about the Vatican declaration on the possibility of blessing “same-sex couples” and couples in other “irregular situations”, which the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (DDF) released on Monday, December 18.
The Vatican’s doctrine office issued a response on Thursday to “clarify the reception of Fiducia Supplicans” amid widespread international backlash to the Vatican’s recent declaration on same-sex blessings.
More than two weeks after the Vatican issued a declaration on blessings of same-sex couples, bishops remain divided over the controversial document.
Members of the controversial German Synodal Way overwhelmingly approved developing formalized ritual texts for same-sex blessings in March 2023.
A prominent black Pentecostal leader is voicing his “solidarity” with African Catholics and urging Pope Francis to withdraw the new same-sex blessing guidelines.
In an interview published in a Spanish newspaper, Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith prefect Cardinal Victor Fernández responded to criticism of the declaration.
Catholic Bishops in Cameroon have added their voice to other Catholic Church leaders, who have prohibited the implementation of Fiducia Supplicans in their Episcopal Sees and territories they govern.
Some bishops, including Cardinal Gerhard Müller and several bishops in Africa, have firmly denounced the Vatican’s document.
Some bishops are welcoming the news, some are approaching it with caution, while others are outright refusing to implement it.
Here’s a timeline of how the controversy over same-sex blessings has unfolded.
The Vatican has issued new guidance on the topic of blessings of same-sex attracted people, stating that Catholic priests can bless same-sex couples as an expression of pastoral closeness without condoning their sexual relations.