2024-01-05 18:26:13
The Archdiocese of Rennes, which has religious authority over the French regions of Brittany and the Pays de Loire, published a text on the blessing of same-sex couples defended by the Vatican, limiting its scope to individual blessings, according to a release this Friday ( 5). The text, dated January 1, refers to the Declaration “Fiducia supplicans”, dated December 18, published by the Vatican’s dicastery (ministry) for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The Vatican text states that “it is appropriate to spontaneously bless, individually, each of the two people who form a couple, whatever their sexual orientation, who ask for God’s blessing.” In the current social context, “it is therefore correct, as the Declaration emphasizes (…), not to contribute to the creation of ‘confusion'” with the sacrament of marriage, which is strictly reserved by the Church for heterosexual couples, according to with the Archdiocese of Rennes in the text signed by the bishops of the nine dioceses involved.
The bishops also highlight that, although the Vatican note stipulates that “it is possible to bless couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples”, it is a “possibility – which is, therefore, not an obligation”. “In fact, it (the Declaration) invites us to make a discernment”, they argue.
In fact, what the French bishops in these regions propose is to bless each person in the couple “separately”. Interviewed by RFIthe former president of the French association The freed word (“La parole libérée”, in the original), François Duvaux, cannot contain his laughter. “Frankly, I have no idea what that could mean,” he quips.
“We have to remember that before Christ there was Socrates, who sought the truth of what we are within ourselves. It is very surprising, in my opinion, to seek a blessing from someone who does not want to give it at all. What would it be, ultimately, more important than being united with the person we love? It’s surprising to go and get something that you won’t have”, he argues. “This is quite destructive as a path,” criticizes Duvaux.
Regarding the maintenance of couple status for heterosexuals by the Catholic Church, “this debate will be difficult to rationalize”, says the activist. “The Catholic Church in its institutional project betrays the Gospel, and everything that is written in it, whether we believe it or not. Biblical teaching is in exact opposition to what this church represents, within the normalization of what needs to be done. There is a necrosis theological in this sense”, hammers Duvaux.
He believes that the crisis within the French Catholic church predates even Pope Francis’ recent more progressive positions. “We are questioning the meaning of it all, our ambition, what it means to be a believer and what it is not, to believe in what, and also the virtue of this creed. When this virtue comes up against politics, in games of normalization or domination, like the what we did when we constructed the image of celibacy for priests, which becomes the transmission of the sacred, we can automatically deduce that the Catholic is a little far from what Jesus wanted to convey. Giving your own conscience into the hands of another person was never the message of Christ”, he states.
“Irregular” couples
In the Vatican document, the dicastery authorized the blessing of “irregular” couples in the eyes of the Church, including remarried couples and same-sex couples, as long as it was carried out outside liturgical rituals.
The Bishop of Bayonne, Dom Marc Aillet, known for his conservative position, also spoke out in favor of individual blessings in a note published on December 23. “I invite the priests of the diocese”, in front of these couples, “to give a benevolent welcome” and, “if people request, to give them a blessing, on the condition that it is for each person individually”.
The Bishop of Poitiers, Dom Pascal Wintzer, on the other hand, sees “no objection to putting into practice what this Roman text proposes, because it is a text that both authorizes and establishes limits”. He “makes clear distinctions between marriage as understood in the Catholic Church, which is the stable bond between a man and a woman, and other types of union, just as there are other types of family,” he said.
Contacted by the agency AFPthe Episcopal Conference declined to comment pending a “permanent council of the CEF”, scheduled for next week in Paris”. The blessing of same-sex couples will be discussed on Tuesday, “a subject that deserves debate by the collegiate”, said the CEF, without giving further details.
Challenge to doctrine?
For its part, the Vatican emphasizes “the need for a longer period of pastoral reflection” to understand the content of the text. The document “remains clear and classic on marriage and sexuality,” says the Vatican press release, so there is no reason for it to be considered “heretical, contrary to Church tradition or blasphemous.”
As a guarantor of dogma, the Doctrine of the Faith wishes to reassure those who fear that the blessing of same-sex couples may one day open the door to the recognition of homosexual unions. The Vatican document recognizes the diversity of local cultural contexts where homosexuality is sometimes criminalized.
“If there are laws that condemn the simple act of declaring oneself homosexual to prison and, in some cases, torture or even death, it is understandable that a blessing would be unwise”, points out the press release. However, it is important that certain episcopal conferences “not defend a doctrine different from that of the declaration approved by the Pope” in December 2023.
Under no circumstances, reminds the Vatican, are these new blessings “a consecration of the person or couple who receive them, nor a ratification of the life they lead. They are simply a pastor’s response to two people asking for God’s help.” . This is an allusion, without naming them, to several African countries where bishops have expressed concern about the authorization to bless homosexual unions.
Gay marriage inflames Greece
The leader of Greece’s main opposition party, Syriza, announced this Friday (5) that he would soon present a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, while the current prime minister appears to want to delay implementation. of this promise. “I asked to present (…) the bill on marriage for all as soon as parliament reopens” after the year-end recess, Stefanos Kasselakis wrote on social media.
“After yesterday’s (Thursday) decision by the Prime Minister to postpone his own bill, this is my only option,” he said. Kasselakis was reacting to statements made by the head of the conservative government, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who said on Thursday not to put “the cart before the horse. First we will explain what we want to do and then we will talk about the timetable.”
The Greek media interpreted this phrase as an indication that the right-wing government wanted to postpone the presentation of a bill to this end. Immediately after his re-election in June, Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that he intended to legalize same-sex marriage during his second term, saying that Greek society was ready.
But in a country where the Orthodox Church exerts an important influence and where a large part of the population considers that the family formed by parents of different sexes is the basis of society, his initiative provoked intense reactions. Several right-wing politicians have announced their opposition to a reform that would legalize the adoption of children by same-sex couples.
Condemnation of raising children by homosexual couples
In a 1,500-page text, the Orthodox Church, known for its conservative stance, also expressed its strong opposition. In particular, she condemns the raising of children by homosexual couples, claiming that they are treated as “accessories” and “pets”.
The majority of Greeks (52%) are in favor of same-sex marriage, but 47% of respondents do not want “legal recognition of the children of same-sex couples”, according to a survey by the opinion research company Click to channel Sky.
The government is unlikely to make any progress on the issue before European elections in June, for fear of losing the votes of the more conservative wing of the ruling New Democracy (ND) party.
Greece has promoted civil unions since 2015. But for same-sex couples with children, only the biological father has rights over those children.
(RFI and AFP)
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