2024-01-08 02:51:29
Catholics around the world are deeply divided over the Vatican’s recent statement giving priests more freedom to bless same-sex couples. Supporters of LGBTQ inclusion welcome the move. But some conservative bishops attack the new policy as a betrayal of the Church’s condemnation of sexual relations between homosexual couples or lesbians.
Surprisingly, the eruption of debate in Catholic ranks coincides with developments in two other international Christian denominations (the global Anglican Communion and the United Methodist Church) that are fracturing over differences in LGBTQ-related policies.
Taken together, it is a dramatic example of how – in a religion that emphasizes God’s love for humanity – divisions over marriage, sexuality and the inclusion of gays and lesbians are proving insurmountable in the foreseeable future in many sectors of Christianity.
The Pope during a recent ceremony in San Pedro (ANSA).
The Catholic Church is experiencing a surprising crisis due to the reactions of hundreds of bishops and entire episcopal conferences who have condemned the pontifical document Fiducia Supplicans that authorizes the blessing of same-sex couples, clarifying that it is a pastoral gesture that does not influence the blessings and liturgical actions.
Catholic marriage between a man and a woman is safe, say the Pope and the Argentine cardinal Víctor “Tucho” Fernándezwho arrived in Rome in July to become the pontiff’s right arm as prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith.
Although the document devised by Fernández and approved by the Pope, together with subsequent clarifications in a press release signed by the Argentine cardinal, establish that the blessing of Catholic homosexuals, particularly couples, represents a pastoral and not a ritual, sacred gesture, that have nothing to do with a Catholic marriage, the hurricane of protests covers a good part of world Catholicism, with a very strong peak of reaction: that of the African churches.
Africa is the continent where the Catholic faith expands the most. There the rebellion of the episcopal conferences and of priests and parishioners takes on worrying dimensions. The basis of this crisis that affects the authority of the Argentine pontiff is the historical culture of Africans, opposed to homosexual activities.
Greeting. The Pope before the faithful from the Vatican Palace /EFE)
Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University and pastor of a Baptist church, says it has become increasingly difficult for Christian denominations to accommodate clergy and congregations with opposing views on same-sex relationships. , especially because such marriages have become legal in much of the Western Hemisphere.
“Many denominations are in a position where a decision has to be made; You can no longer be indecisive,” said Burge, a specialist in religious demography. “That’s the tension they face: how to keep older conservatives and at the same time attract younger ones.”
For global denominations – particularly Catholics, Anglicans and United Methodists – Burge sees another source of tension: Some of their biggest growth in recent decades has occurred in socially conservative African countries where same-sex relationships are common. taboo.
“African bishops have this ammunition,” Burge said. “They say to the West: ‘We are the ones who are growing.’ You have the money, we have the numbers.’”
Among Christian denominations, the Anglican Communion is second only to the Catholic Church in geographical extent. Divisions over marriage, sexuality and LGBTQ inclusion have roiled communion for years and widened on Dec. 17, when Church of England priests offered officially sanctioned blessings to same-sex couples for the first time.
The Church of England’s ban on religious weddings for gay couples persists, but the decision to allow blessings has angered several conservative Anglican bishops in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific.
A rift is occurring in slow motion in the United Methodist Church.
A few years ago, it was the third-largest denomination in the United States, but a quarter of American congregations recently received permission to leave due to disputes involving LGBTQ-related policies.
Fuentes: The Associated Press
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