Vatican’s Fiducia Supplicans: Twisted narratives; Mixed Reactions (Part II)

BY CHRIS UCHENNA AGBEDO (PhD)

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The Vatican Declaration – Fiducia Supplicans – has become one document, diverse interpretations. For whatever reasons, a section of the media has found common ground in feasting on news filtering from the Vatican in recent times and spinning them out of context. John Bursch captured this new sensation in a commentary entitled, ‘Pope Francis Did Not Just Authorize Priests to Bless Same-Sex Unions,’ and published on 19 December 2023. As he observed, “For the second time in a month, the media has taken a document from the Vatican and mangled it beyond all recognition. In November, the subject was so-called transgender baptisms. Now, it is the supposed authorization of blessings for same-sex unions. But that’s not what the document says at all.” In its own report, CNN said, “Pope Francis formally permitted Roman Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples in a significant shift in the church’s approach to LGBTQ+ people.” Reporting for TheCable on the same topic, Claire Mom noted, “Pope Francis has formally permitted Catholic priests to bless same-sex unions.” Rob Garver, while reporting for VOA observed that Pope Francis announced this week that priests are now allowed to bless the relationships of same-sex couples and others in what the church refers to as “irregular situations.” “Pope Francis opens possibility for blessing same-sex unions,” declared ABC News, running with a headline that was typical of how mainstream media described the Pope’s responses to dubia submitted by five cardinals earlier in the summer.

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Not unexpectedly, this has generated mixed reactions from both opponents and proponents of same-sex unions. For instance, Tomash Peta, archbishop of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan condemned the Vatican’s approval of blessings for same-sex couples. In a joint statement alongside Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop, Peta called the Pope’s new stance as a ‘great deception’. The archbishop forbade all priests and parishes in his archdiocese from blessing same-sex couples, noting that it ‘directly and seriously contradicts Divine Revelation and the uninterrupted, bimillennial doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church’. Noting that the Vatican’s orders do not ‘walk uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel,’ the clergymen called on the Pope to revoke the permission to bless couples in an ‘irregular situation’ and same-sex couples, so that the Catholic Church may shine clearly as the ‘pillar and ground of the truth’. Peta further warned priests that this effort to legitimize such blessings will have ‘far-reaching and destructive consequences’ and, at least in practice, turns the Catholic Church into a ‘propagandist of gender ideology’. Citing cultural sensitivities of Africa, which abhor homosexuality in any form or practice, Catholic Church hierarchies of African countries – Nigeria, Cameroun, Malawi, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Congo, and Madagascar – equally voiced out their joint opposition to the Fiducia Supplicans that tend to give ecclesial backing to same-sex union blessing. The position of the Catholic Bishops Conference in Africa was revealed by Rev. Fr. Okhueleigbe Osemhantie of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) Media. In particular, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) said in a statement that blessing same-sex marriage was not possible in the church because it is “against God’s law, the teachings of the Church, and the cultural sensibilities of our people.”

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On the flip side are the supporters of blessings for same-sex unions. New Ways Ministry, which pushes advocacy for LGBTQ+ Catholics said the letter ‘significantly advances’ efforts to make LGBTQ+ Catholics welcomed in the church and ‘is one big straw towards breaking the camel’s back’ in their marginalization. Its executive director, Francis DeBernardo, had in a statement noted, “The allowance for pastoral ministers to bless same-gender couples implies that the church does recognize that holy love can exist between same-gender couples, and the love of these couples mirrors the love of God.”

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Nonetheless, some theologians are of the opinion that immediate media reactions miss the mark and don’t accurately capture what the Pope did – and didn’t – say, adding that Pope’s directive on same-sex blessings emphasizes persons, not unions. The central critique, which informed the theologians’ responses to the Register is that “the Pope’s focus was not on same-sex unions, but instead on same-sex-attracted persons who may be in some kind of same-sex relationship. Although the question being referred to, explicitly addressed “blessing same-sex unions,” the Pope’s response never spoke of “unions.” Instead, the Pope wrote of possible blessings for “one or more persons,” a subtle but significant distinction. According to Father Thomas Berg, a professor of moral theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary and College in Yonkers, New York, “the Holy Father has in mind the possibility of praying with an individual or with a couple who experience same-sex attraction; he envisions, on a case-by-case basis, a priest using ‘pastoral prudence’ to determine what – if anything – it would be prudent for him to do in response to a request for ‘a blessing.’” David Cloutier, a moral theologian at The Catholic University of America, likewise emphasized the Pope’s focus on persons, adding that the Pope’s message was consistent with his “all pastoral, all the time” approach. In explaining why, the distinction between persons and unions matters, John Froula, a professor of dogmatic theology at St. Paul Seminary and School of Divinity in Minnesota, drew attention to Vatican’s March 2021 guidance on whether the Church could bless same-sex unions. The Vatican underscored the point that blessings of “particular human relationships” can only bless realities that are “objectively and positively ordered to receive and express grace, according to the designs of God inscribed in creation, and fully revealed by Christ the Lord.”

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On the whole, whereas the Pope forecloses any sort of rite or blessing that would imply ecclesial approval of homosexual acts, or allow anything that implies that homosexual unions are equivalent to marriage, his approach hardly excludes anyone from the Church’s prudent pastoral care, more so when such pastoral care includes blessings that do not compromise Church teachings. However, even when the Pope’s directive on same-sex blessings appears clear and concise, Father Berg observed that it will still be “misconstrued by many priests and bishops” who already have a mind to bless same-sex couples “and the media as ‘an opening to bless gay marriages.’”  It is in this sense that the Pope’s directive, according to the moral theologian, is “simply unhelpful as stated and only compound confusion with regard to gender and the nature of marriage”. It is this ecclesial confusion that the western media seems to relish cashing in to spin narratives that clearly propagate the opposite of what the Fiducia Supplicans represents.

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But for the papal infallibility caveat, perhaps it would have been tenable to opine that Pope Francis may not be totally free from providing inspiration for the twisted same-sex blessing narrative of a section of the media. Since his ascendancy to the papacy throne in 2013, Pope Francis is on record to have been working hard to reform church governance, making it less hierarchical and paying more attention to those who have expressed concerns about exclusion. According to James Ojo, Pope Francis has pushed to adopt a more inclusive tone towards LGBT people in his public statements. In October 2020 for instance, TheCable Lifestyle reported how Pope Francis gave his endorsement to same-sex civil unions despite the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality. According to the Catholic News Agency, the religious leader delivered the historic remark in ‘Francesco,’ a new documentary on his life and ministry, which premiered at the Rome film festival. Referring to gay Catholics as ‘children of God’ who should not be thrown out of the religion, Pope Francis declared, “homosexuals have the right to be part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it. What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. I stood for that.” James Martin, a Jesuit priest took to his Twitter handle (now X Platform, 3.16PM Oct 21, 2020) to hail the pope, saying, “Pope Francis’ support for same-sex civil union is a major step forward in the church’s support of LGBTQ people. It is in keeping with his pastoral approach to LGBT people, including LGBT Catholics, and sends a strong signal to countries where the church has opposed such laws.” Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of sexual abuse in 2018, who met the pope and also featured in ‘Francesco’ told Guardian UK of how the Catholic Pontif told him that being gay did not matter since God made him like that. “Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like this and loves you like this and I don’t care. The pope loves you like this. You have to be happy with who you are,” the Guardian UK quoted Juan Cruz to have said.

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However, in 2021, the Vatican issued a decree banning the blessing of gay marriages because God ‘cannot bless sin’. In the two-page response signed by Pope Francis and published in seven languages, the Vatican gave ‘negative’ as an answer to those making such inquiries. It said the church’s decision to welcome and also bless gay people should not be mistaken to mean approval of unions between them. The Vatican further buttressed its standpoint by noting that same-sex unions contradict God’s plan, adding that an such sacramental recognition could be confused with marriage. It reiterated the fact while people who belong to the LGBT community should be accorded dignity and respect, gay sex is ‘intrinsically disordered,’ adding that the Catholic Church upholds its teachings, which sees marriage as a union between a man and woman for procreation as planned by God. Elton John, a renowned English singer, had called out the Vatican over the decree that Catholic Church won’t give its blessing to gay marriages, accusing the Vatican of ‘hypocrisy’. The musician cited the Vatican’s alleged investment in ‘Rocketman,’ his 2019 movie, which focused on his life and marriage as gay. “How can the Vatican refuse to bless gay marriages because they “are sin,” yet happily make a profit from investing million in ‘Rocketman’ – a film which celebrates my finding happiness from my marriage to David?? #hypocrisy’, he wrote in his Twitter page (5:00PM March 15, 2021).

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Nonetheless, in what has been (mis)construed in some quarters as a 360-degree doctrinal reversal, the Pope hinted in a Fiducia Supplicans that he would be open to having the Catholic Church bless same-sex unions. This seeming flip-flop tends to fuel and drive the pontifical same-sex blessing narrative in the media. The unfolding scenario, chiefly defined by a potpourri of twisted narratives and cacophony of honest misunderstanding of the Pope’s intentions, underscores the imperative of clarity on the part of the Vatican authority. This forms the thrust of our discussion in the subsequent parts.

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AGBEDO is a Professor of Linguistics & Director, Centre for Igbo Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.